Sunday, September 30, 2007

Wilderness First Aid

Last weekend, I took a Wilderness First Aid class with the local kayak club. This class varies from the standard first aid/CPR class in that it assumes that professional help (like an ambulance) won't be able to arrive for over an hour (perhaps even days), where in normal circumstances they can be there in about 10 minutes. So we needed to be able to make sure that a patient survives for longer periods, and also that we could transport them out.
先週末に荒野の応急手当の授業を受けた。その授業と普通な応急手当の授業はちょっと違う。普通のは緊急救助を呼ぶことから来るまで10分ぐらいです。荒野の応急手当は1時間以上です。長い間に負傷者を生かしておかなければならない。

The class was 16 hours in total and covered many different things. We also had many practice sessions, including some with blood makeup used. I definitely learned a lot.
その授業は16時間かかった。色々なことを教えた。よく学んだ。

The class took place at the Presidio Yacht Club, which is at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. We definitely had great views.
その授業はゴールデンゲートブリッジのふもとにPresidio Yacht Clubにあった。橋がよく見える

If you are interested in wilderness first aid classes, the company that provided the training was Foster Calm.
Foster Calmという会社は教えた。

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Monday, September 17, 2007

Columbia River Water Trail - Basics

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Basics:
Our friends Janet and Brian like to do a 2 week long trip every year, and last year's was the Channel Islands off of Santa Barbara. They considered going to the west coast of Vancouver Island this year, but had some concerns about bears and weather/wave conditions there.

Then they read an article in the AAA Magazine Via about this area, and it clicked that they should do this instead.

The basics of the trip would be to paddle from just below Bonneville Dam down to the Ocean. In a direct route, it would be about 150 miles. Almost all of it is protected (no ocean waves), but does have its challenges (tides, wind waves, big ships, strong currents, etc.). Turns out that most any island, and many areas of the shoreline, are open for camping, so this definitely made things easier. And there is civilization nearby to get water and food if needed. Sounded perfect, so they started planning.

Sylvia and I were invited last year to the Channel Islands, but we had some concerns (open ocean and all), plus we didn't own boats then and had trouble arranging for rentals, so we didn't go with them. But this year we have boats and this sounded like a less risky trip, so we agreed to join them.

One thing that made this area famous was that Lewis and Clark traveled here as part of their search for an overland route to the Pacific. There are many historical markers and museums along the way, which helped educate us to their trip.

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Columbia River Water Trail - Trip

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Part 2 - The Trip:
We started the trip a bit late, as my car had some problems on the way up. That was resolved and we drove to Oregon, arriving late in the evening. Stayed at a hotel and then went to the launch ramp the next morning (after 2 wrong turns), getting there a half hour late (not a great start to the trip).

We loaded the boats, which was a challenge. There is a limited amount of space in the boats, and we made the best of it. This is a picture into Sylvia's rear hatch.

We finally launched at 1 or 2, and enjoyed a strong (5 mph) current heading the direction we wanted to go. This allowed us to complete about 10 miles in the first afternoon, keeping us on schedule for our trip. The currents were amazingly strong, coming from San Francisco where currents down a stream don't really exist (just tides). Here, the tides don't play that much of a part until you get close to the ocean.

This process continued for the first few days - us padding for a few hours and covering a lot of ground due to the current. We would then stop, set up camp, relax and cook dinner.

The campsites were almost all on beaches. Some were semi-developed, and had fire rings, toilets, and/or picnic tables. Others were undeveloped. All were very nice.

The weather was very good for us. We had rain one night (while we slept) and some drizzle the next day, but other than that it was sunny for the first week. The last few days, once we got close to the coast, were foggy. And the winds mostly did not come up.

We did eat well during the trip. The first few nights we had fresh foods. Then after that, we did our best with dried foods (like rice and pasta) and canned foods. We did get lucky one day when Brian was given a large, fresh salmon fillet from a fisherman he helped. And we also found plenty of ripe blackberries just about everywhere we went.

Similar to tides not playing as much of a part, same with salt water. I couldn't taste any salt in the water until our last day of paddling - so fresh until 10 or 15 miles from the ocean. This surprised me, as in the SF Bay Area, salt reaches more than 50 miles.

Tides may not have played much of a part, but ships do. There is a major shipping channel in the river, and we need to make sure we are out of the way of the tugs with barges and open going ships.

The photos shown here, plus more photos and video clips, can be seen http://picasaweb.google.com/donohue.peter/ColumbiaRiverTrip.

And if you have software that can work with .GPX files from GPSs, you can download our track here. Final stats were 174.7 miles, moving time of 52h 32m 29s, average speed of 3.3 mph, and max speed of 11 mph (I don't believe this one, though I wouldn't be surprised to see an 8 or 9).

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Columbia River Water Trail - Animals

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Part 3 - Animals:
We saw many animals on this trip.. Below are some of the ones I was able to photograph. We did see others, like a mink and many fish, that I did not capture with my camera.

Fox

River Otter

Crayfish looking mean

Deer walking across beach

Baby eel?

Osprey

Heron or egret

Osprey flying

Bald eagle

Pelican

Many cormorant flying

Frog

Banana slug - the ones we have in CA don't have the black spots on them

One of the raccoons that visited our campsite

These photos (and more) and also some video clips that I took can be seen http://picasaweb.google.com/donohue.peter/ColumbiaRiverTrip.

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Columbia River Water Trail - Resources

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Part 4 - Resources:
This trip was quite fun, and recommended. It has many things going for it that would allow someone with a little kayak camping experience to complete it. Added to this is some useful information out there which would help you along the way.

One book that was quite informative for us was the book The Lewis and Clark Columbia River Water Trail: A Guide for Paddlers, Hikers, and Other Explorers (click link to see this book and its reviews at Amazon). This book provides information on launch sites, camp sites, etc., and was useful enough day to day that Brian and Janet brought it with them on the trip.

The other product that we found helpful is the Fish-N-Map Company's Columbia River, Lower (Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean) map. This fold out map is printed on waterproof paper, so I was able to keep it on my deck most of the time. It provided details that the book didn't, such as what areas would be above water at low tide. Not as detailed as the official charts, but this trip would require some $1000 in charts, where this map was under $10.

And of course, the Internet has some resources. Specifically, the web site http://www.columbiawatertrail.org/ has a lot of useful information. One of our paddle partners found this to be a bit too static, with information that seemed out of date in places, so he put together a Wiki for this watertrail at http://columbiariverwatertrail.gotoes.org/index.pl, which lets people add or change the content. To start with, the places we stopped at are posted in it.

All of these above don't provide a detailed enough picture needed, so local knowledge is needed. The local kayak shops and kayakers provided a lot of helpful information. Some shout outs:

The first source was Steve ("Flatpick" on paddling.net), who lives in the area and used to be an owner of Alder Creek Kayaks. He humored me and continued to provide responses to my dozens of emails.

Sandy ("PaddlePirate" on paddling.net) - It was good meeting you at Government Island, and thanks for the info you had.

Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe - great retail store right on the water in Portland. We were able to hire them to do the shuttle for us to get us back from Cape Disappointment to Bonneville (a 3 hour drive). They also provided a lot of useful information for us.

Scappoose Bay Kayaks - the owner went way out of his way, even giving us his cell phone number and offering to get us anything or come out in his boat to pick us up in an emergency. And while we waited there for the tide to turn, he let us use their showers. This shop does have an option if you don't want to do the trip on your own or have less time - a guided/supported 2 to 4 day trips of the lower half of our trip.

Skamokawa Kayaks - these folks let us hang out and wait for the tide to turn, along with provide a lot of info on options for camping and where to go for the last leg of the trip.

Brian has made a Columbia River Water Trail Wiki, so people can add and update information for future paddlers.


Some thoughts to keep in mind if you do this trip:

  • The current above Portland is almost all related to flow coming from the dam. They vary based on rain and how much power they need to generate. Perhaps this can be used to find a time with more favorable currents.
  • Go downstream. The flow from the dam is enough that you would be greatly challenged to make it upstream from Portland.
  • The time for tides change by 50 minutes (later) every day. The time for tides also get earlier as you get closer to the ocean. Turns out that if you travel about 20 miles downstream, these two factors offset each other. So if you time your trip so that high tide is mid-morning, you will get an ebb tide for every day (not some important above Portland, but very important after Longview).

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Columbia River Water Trail - Pics of Me

This is a multi-part posting related to the paddle we just did down the Columbia River Water Trail. The parts are:

Part 1 - Basics of the trip
Part 2 - the Trip
Part 3 - Animals seen
Part 4 - Resources for others interested in this trip
Part 5 - Some pics of me that Brian took

すみません。英語だけです。

Pics of me:

Brian has posted some of his pictures from the trip at http://gotoes.org/kayaktours/20070902_Columbia_River/. These include a few pictures of me, which I am copying to here (being that I am usually the one taking the pictures, I don't normally get any of me...).

Us paddling through the brush along the shore of Deep River (me in the gray boat). Sylvia and I always like the challenge of paddling around things, to see if we have the boat handling skills to be able to do it without hitting anything. I actually entered the brush last, and passed Brian and Janet when they got the tandem stuck on some branches.

In this picture, I am paddling through the legs of a bridge (Highway 4 bridge over Deep River). I made it through without hitting my boat or paddle against the bridge. This picture doesn't show it well, but there are about a dozen legs on each side and you have to travel a couple of boat lengths in distance before you are clear. Definitely need to go straight (or use a rudder) to make it without touching.

I have my sun hat on, which protects the back of my neck from sun. With the fog, I wasn't expecting to get any sun that day, but had it closed up so that it would provide me a little bit of warmth.

Ok, maybe I should have put my shirt on for this one...

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