jim65wagon
Well-known member
THE WIND! IT'S ALWAYS THE WIND!
Sunday January 7th 2024
The morning was cold! Not actually cold, I mean, it was 42 degrees. It was just colder than it has been. We dressed, pulling on our puffy down jackets, then went down to the couch with a blanket to sit on and coffee cups to warm our hands. We sat there drinking our coffee, watching the sun rise. With the sun the day warmed quickly.
It started off pretty windy so we took the opportunity to transfer the photos and videos we've taken onto computers and hard drives. After a couple of hours it seemed as if the wind had died down a bit. The waves on the water weren't white capped, I mean, there were still waves but the water looked floatable. We launched and quickly realized that fishing was out of the question, the waves were enough that concentrating on floating was more important than fishing. We paddled around a bit then decided to call it quits and paddled back to shore. The swells were large enough we were surfing in on the waves, landing on the beach with the water flowing over the backs of our boats and into the cockpits.
Wet and sandy we cleaned out the kayaks, and hung all of our gear out to dry. After that we cleaned ourselves with a nice hot shower (Camp Chef water heater for the win!) and settled into the teardrop. We napped a bit, then began perusing our maps for campsites to stay at on our way back to the states. We picked a few places that looked promising and tagged them with markers on both Google and Gaia maps.
The wind picked up quite a bit and I rolled up the awning walls. The awning walls are modified Ozark Trails Gazebo walls from Walmart. Beth sewed them up a few years ago and attached them directly to the awnings. They just roll up into an attached storage bag for a quick and convenient shower house/changing room setup. With the wind it became apparent that we'd missed our window of opportunity to easily load the kayaks onto the truck. Our new kayaks are light, extremely light. As a matter of fact they got blown across the road the day they were delivered to us in a big gust of wind as a storm hit. We took the first and got it up on the rack, then I held it down (extra weight helps, and the gravity of the situation required an extra helping of mass) while Beth tied the boat secure. Boat number two was a quick repeat of the first. We collected all of the gear, vests, ropes and paddles went into the bed of the truck while the fishing rods and tackleboxes went into their respective spot in the side door on the cap.
The stinging winds were storming down the valley in the mountains. Lucky for us this put our stove in the lee so Beth was able to get some Fajitas cooked up. We had to sit right next to the trailer to avoid getting sand in our food. Our neighbor, Francis came over to report that the winds were supposed to worsen over the next few days. We timed this one right it was definitely time to leave the valley.
Sunday January 7th 2024
The morning was cold! Not actually cold, I mean, it was 42 degrees. It was just colder than it has been. We dressed, pulling on our puffy down jackets, then went down to the couch with a blanket to sit on and coffee cups to warm our hands. We sat there drinking our coffee, watching the sun rise. With the sun the day warmed quickly.
It started off pretty windy so we took the opportunity to transfer the photos and videos we've taken onto computers and hard drives. After a couple of hours it seemed as if the wind had died down a bit. The waves on the water weren't white capped, I mean, there were still waves but the water looked floatable. We launched and quickly realized that fishing was out of the question, the waves were enough that concentrating on floating was more important than fishing. We paddled around a bit then decided to call it quits and paddled back to shore. The swells were large enough we were surfing in on the waves, landing on the beach with the water flowing over the backs of our boats and into the cockpits.
Wet and sandy we cleaned out the kayaks, and hung all of our gear out to dry. After that we cleaned ourselves with a nice hot shower (Camp Chef water heater for the win!) and settled into the teardrop. We napped a bit, then began perusing our maps for campsites to stay at on our way back to the states. We picked a few places that looked promising and tagged them with markers on both Google and Gaia maps.
The wind picked up quite a bit and I rolled up the awning walls. The awning walls are modified Ozark Trails Gazebo walls from Walmart. Beth sewed them up a few years ago and attached them directly to the awnings. They just roll up into an attached storage bag for a quick and convenient shower house/changing room setup. With the wind it became apparent that we'd missed our window of opportunity to easily load the kayaks onto the truck. Our new kayaks are light, extremely light. As a matter of fact they got blown across the road the day they were delivered to us in a big gust of wind as a storm hit. We took the first and got it up on the rack, then I held it down (extra weight helps, and the gravity of the situation required an extra helping of mass) while Beth tied the boat secure. Boat number two was a quick repeat of the first. We collected all of the gear, vests, ropes and paddles went into the bed of the truck while the fishing rods and tackleboxes went into their respective spot in the side door on the cap.
The stinging winds were storming down the valley in the mountains. Lucky for us this put our stove in the lee so Beth was able to get some Fajitas cooked up. We had to sit right next to the trailer to avoid getting sand in our food. Our neighbor, Francis came over to report that the winds were supposed to worsen over the next few days. We timed this one right it was definitely time to leave the valley.
