The ‘Sharing Adventures Together’ Thread

[JustDave]

Throughout most of the 1980's and 90's I was a dedicated sea kayaker. Puget Sound, to the north of me, was a paradise for that hobby.

I've sailed Puget Sound many times, and used to watch the kayakers. I eventually bought a sea kayak, but when I finally realized I was probably never going to learn to roll it, I never got farther from shore than I could swim.

 

[CallMeKate]

Alligators are a lot like moose and bear in that respect. They have all killed and injured people, but its pretty rare. Alligators are no more (or less) dangerous.

Closest I've come was hearing a gator, not actually seeing it. I was walking on a pier over swamp water in Florida and heard the "growl" (does that sound have an actual name?) under the pier. It wasn't for a few days until I realized it could have turned out a lot differently if it had been *on* the pier with no way around it since I'd been on the way *back* from my walk.

 

[Alligatorob]

heard the "growl" (does that sound have an actual name?)

Not sure, we call it a growl or a call. There are different calls depending on the situation. I had a hunting buddy who was quite good at imitating a baby gator call. The best one to attract either a mother trying to defend her offspring, or a male hoping to eat them. The male mating call can sometimes bring in a big male competitor.

 

[JustDave]

Not sure, we call it a growl or a call. There are different calls depending on the situation. I had a hunting buddy who was quite good at imitating a baby gator call. The best one to attract either a mother trying to defend her offspring, or a male hoping to eat them. The male mating call can sometimes bring in a big male competitor.

Are the calls used to attract them tools designed for that purpose? I'm familiar with deer and elk calls, the most popular being the elk bugle, with does attract bulls. Back "when," I archery hunted elk during the rut, and the first time I bugled I drew one in. Then I heard there were cow calls. I didn't even know cows made sounds. I bought one and when I blew it, I immediately recognized that it was a sound I had heard in the woods many times, although I always assumed it was some kind of bird. I guess it's a bleep that calves call out to their mothers.

 

[Alligatorob]

Are the calls used to attract them tools designed for that purpose?

Don't know of a gator call similar to the duck call. It is possible to imitate the call with your mouth, I am not very good at it, but have had buddies who were. I made some recordings and played those, worked sometimes.

I did once successfully call in a bull elk just imitating the sound with my mouth, but I wasn't hunting, just hiking at the time.

 

[bobcat]

How old were you when you did the survival class? I don't remember even hearing about those until I was well into my own wilderness adventures.

I think I was in my late 30's when I took the class. I was the oldest one there, but I didn't care. I have a video of our adventures, but it's pretty grainy, as video tape wasn't that good yet. Here is a screenshot of us rock jockies coming back from Smith Lake. It rained from the time we left to the time we got back, but that was the whole purpose of the class, survival.

 

[bobcat]

That's impressive, I've done a little backpacking, not so much as you. Your winter thing and building the snow hut sounds particularly interesting.

I did once go on a two night cross country ski backpack trip. Took a tent though, no igloo building. The thing I didn't like about it was the long dark night, much longer than summer. Not much to do with the extra dark hours, not comfortable sitting around a campfire, it was too cold.

That's very cool; I never got into skiing much, but always admired the ones who did. We did the campfire thing and mostly listened to our instructor talk about all his adventures. It was fascinating. Then during the day, we had snowball fights on snowshoes. It's every bit as awkward as it sounds, but a real hoot.

 

[JustDave]

we had snowball fights on snowshoes. It's every bit as awkward as it sounds, but a real hoot.

lol

 

[PeppermintPatty]

I've sailed Puget Sound many times, and used to watch the kayakers. I eventually bought a sea kayak, but when I finally realized I was probably never going to learn to roll it, I never got farther from shore than I could swim.

Our kayaks aren’t sea kayaks but what I do like about them is that they aren’t made from anything that will corrode them from the salt water whereas our fishing boat needs to be rinsed after every use.

Thanks @PeppermintPatty , great stories, you really write well. So does @JustDave and you both have good stories.

I've never been anywhere I need to portage a loaded canoe, that must be hard work. I do like canoe camping, kind of like backpacking without having to carry the load. On the Green and Colorado trips we even took beer and ice cream in our coolers. Kept the ice cream on dry ice, it was a real treat after several days of camping.

I have done a lot of canoeing on Otter Lake, probably the other Otter Lake though. More alligators than otters. Used to enjoy swimming in the lake by the alligator warning signs. One of them decorates my garage today.

ST. MARKS NWR: OTTER LAKE RECREATION AREA
https://floridabirdingtrail.com/trail/trail-sections/panhandle-section/st-marks-nwr-otter-lake/

I write well? Really? Thank you.
You’re lucky you didn’t have to portage. Portaging is definitely the hardest part on long distance interior canoeing. Some of our portages were brutal. The only time I took a cooler canoeing was when I went group camping and wanted to bring some cold white wine and chicken to cook.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

We saw moose, but no bears. The ranger told us that the ice had just gone out less than two weeks before we got there, It was in early May, and the bears may have been just starting to come out of hibernation. The mosquitoes had not even emerged yet, not until the last two days of our trip, and they emerged all at once, hungry and with vengeance. As far as wildlife, what I remember the most were beaver at every place we camped. back then we didn't cut firewood. We would just pick up two foot long sections of useable firewood left from the beaver chewings. I doubt that campfires are approved of today.

You were very smart to go sometime in May while the bears were still hibernating and the mosquitoes not out yet. Thats actually brilliant. We saw several beavers also. They are interesting creatures.

Aren’t moose amazing. It was so cool padding by such muscular but passive animals. They’d just look at us paddling by while chewing on the water grasses. It was truly wonderful and I wish I had pictures.

We didn’t take many bear pictures since we were either paddling or carrying our backpacks and canoe but we did get a photo of the mother bear who had cubs just above her. It’s not a great picture but it’s a picture.


Here’s a picture of one of our canoes. These are photos of older photographs so the quality isn’t great.

Here’s a photo of our cheap but light tent

Here’s a photo of our dog looking out at a loon on the lake from our campsite in early evening.

Here’s a close up photo of a fox. One day I’d like to paint it.

 

[David777]

As a few decades hard core backpacker, snow skier, fishing enthusiasts, and landscape & nature photographer, adventures have always been at the core of my non-career life though note, am not into extreme sports. Living here in Northern California, am just a few hours drive away from many potential world class outdoor adventures. I negotiated expectations of my electronic hardware career up front so employers allowed that lifestyle. For instance rarely working on weekends and when I would use my generous vacation days. Have some of those adventures documented including images on web sites and youtube but won't link to any of those herein. Although it may read like posting about adventures would be interesting for a board like this, however, unless one complements text with images and or videos, such will soon fall flat, boring. Same thing on actual enthusiast web sites...yawn.

Today most adventures are recorded with GoPro and other POV video cameras and many can be viewed on youtube given a search, especially extreme sports. Today ordinary humans of modest means can become involved in amazing activities that our ancestors would greatly envy. Despite such, the vast majority of humans are content to remain all their adult lives in urban areas and when they do plan outdoor vacations, they are usually the packaged sight seeing luxury types.

https://www.extremeinternational.com/list-of-extreme-sports

I have youtube non-professional level resort based 1080p skiing videos that are impressive including fresh powder skiing and bump skiing. Here are a couple by others. Kayaking Cherry Creek in Emigrant Wilderness during late spring cold snowy weather:

Helicopter skiing Alaska steep peaks:

 

[palides2021]

You were very smart to go sometime in May while the bears were still hibernating and the mosquitoes not out yet. Thats actually brilliant. We saw several beavers also. They are interesting creatures.

Aren’t moose amazing. It was so cool padding by such muscular but passive animals. They’d just look at us paddling by while chewing on the water grasses. It was truly wonderful and I wish I had pictures.

We didn’t take many bear pictures since we were either paddling or carrying our backpacks and canoe but we did get a photo of the mother bear who had cubs just above her. It’s not a great picture but it’s a picture.
View attachment 291079

Here’s a picture of one of our canoes. These are photos of older photographs so the quality isn’t great.
View attachment 291080
Here’s a photo of our cheap but light tent
View attachment 291081
Here’s a photo of our dog looking out at a loon on the lake from our campsite in early evening.
View attachment 291082
Here’s a close up photo of a fox. One day I’d like to paint it.
View attachment 291083

Lovely thread, and I enjoyed your writing and the photos, @PeppermintPatty ! Thank you! If you could paint the fox, that would be special!

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Most of my experiences were backpacking adventures. In one survival class I took, we had to snowshoe with backpacks into the Lassen wilderness and camp with no tents. We learned how to make snow huts called a quinzhee where each of us would pile up a huge mound of snow, then break off twigs from the trees and insert the twigs into the snow mound all over. Then you make a tiny entrance, and dig out all the snow till you reach the end of the twigs, and that way you know how thick the wall of the quinzhee is.
Then we cut off a few tree boughs for the floor, threw the sleeping bag down and climbed in. The surreal part was waking up the next morning. The sunlight made the inside of the snow hut into a blue bubble, and waking up in a blue bubble is something I will never forget. It is totally silent and just mind-blowing.
On another adventure, we learned how to cook vegetables with no pots or pans or foil. We brought potatoes, carrots, and onions as I recall. Anyway, we had to find some clay, then mix a little water with it and put a thick layer around each vegetable. We then built a bonfire, scooted the encased vegetables into the fire, rolling them over after a while, and waited for the fire to burn down to just coals. Then we cracked open the hardened clay and there was the fully cooked vegees, and very tasty (No flavor could escape). All great experiences.

This is quite impressive. Although you might never use these skills, you never know when they might come in handy. That cooking food without pots is really something. Have you ever used some of these skills since learning them?

I think I was in my late 30's when I took the class. I was the oldest one there, but I didn't care. I have a video of our adventures, but it's pretty grainy, as video tape wasn't that good yet. Here is a screenshot of us rock jockies coming back from Smith Lake. It rained from the time we left to the time we got back, but that was the whole purpose of the class, survival.

That’s a great photo of you and the rest of the class. It must have been quite the experience.
Whereabouts is Smith Lake?

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Lovely thread, and I enjoyed your writing and the photos, @PeppermintPatty ! Thank you! If you could paint the fox, that would be special!

Thank you so much.
Im currently enjoying your writing. Unfortunately I’m not a fast reader but when I’m finished I shall give a raving review.

 

[CallMeKate]

Oh yes, Patty... if you're an artist, that fox would make an incredible painting! Love the lil' guy being "framed" by the flowers like that! @PeppermintPatty

 

[Alligatorob]

Thanks for the great pictures PP, it really is an impressive place!

You were very smart to go sometime in May while the bears were still hibernating and the mosquitoes not out yet. Thats actually brilliant. We saw several beavers also. They are interesting creatures.

Aren’t moose amazing. It was so cool padding by such muscular but passive animals.

Don't underestimate the moose danger:

More people are killed by large herbivores than by predators. In North America, moose attack more people than bears and wolves combined.

Dangerous animals
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Dangerous_animals

 

[bobcat]

This is quite impressive. Although you might never use these skills, you never know when they might come in handy. That cooking food without pots is really something. Have you ever used some of these skills since learning them?

That’s a great photo of you and the rest of the class. It must have been quite the experience.
Whereabouts is Smith Lake?

It's in Plumas County, Calif. That's where I grew up. There are tons of lakes there. Many are hike-in lakes, but some you can drive to.
As to using some of those skills, no not that much, although heat transference and insulating materials such as wool have come in handy a few times. Once they even made us sleep in a cardboard box with newspaper in the middle of winter so we could learn how trapped air and dry cellulose works well as insulators. These days though, I try not to sleep in cardboard boxes, so again, not something I really use, but it could come in handy if life dealt me a cruel hand I guess.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Oh yes, Patty... if you're an artist, that fox would make an incredible painting! Love the lil' guy being "framed" by the flowers like that! @PeppermintPatty

Thank you Kate
Perhaps I will.
I really like the flowers in it also.
Today while out walking through the forest trails, I can’t help noticing the white flower ground cover. It’s so pretty.

Then there are native lupins everywhere.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Thanks for the great pictures PP, it really is an impressive place!

Don't underestimate the moose danger:

More people are killed by large herbivores than by predators. In North America, moose attack more people than bears and wolves combined.

Dangerous animals
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Dangerous_animals

We gaged their comfort level before we paddled past them and we passed a lot of them. Not once did any one of them show a switch of a concern for us being there. Our dog didn’t even bark at them. We went through exceptionally quietly as well as peacefully making no sudden moves except to paddle and even then, we did more coaxing than paddling. Thanks for the warning all the same. People are more of a concern for this women than outdoor wild animals.

 

[Alligatorob]

People are more of a concern for this women than outdoor wild animals.

They should be! We are the most dangerous animal on earth.

I lived in Wyoming for a few years, had moose all around. In the winter they would come right into town. I could see how they might be dangerous, a very large animal and if you got too close they get mad. You can see the hair raise up on the back of their neck... People would get "moosed in", that is what it was called when one would settle on your porch to escape the snow. Usually had to call the Game and Fish to run them off.

I was particular worried at night, in the dark they were hard to see and it was easy to walk up on one. Once a big bull decided he wasn't leaving the plowed road, he would charge first one way then the other. Backed traffic up for a long time.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

@JustDave
I scooped the answers off the other thread so I can comment on them.

1/. Did you ever get off the boat on your journey, just to go swimming?

Dave’s answer

No, I had a few rules for sailing alone. The first one is never separate myself physically from the boat. The trip from the continent to Hawaii, has very consistent winds, and most of the time it's bumpy, so swimming was off the table, anyway. I also had lifeline that ran down the center of the boat from the cockpit to the bow. I always wore a harness with a short tether that I could hook on to the life line whenever I left the cockpit. I could fall at anytime, but the tether would never allow me to fall off the deck. Yes I can swim, but not as fast as a boat drifting in the wind.

Pattys response :

You know, I had never considered the fact that it’s an unanchored ship. The sails capture the wind so jumping off to swim would be really silly and dangerous. So you’re tethered to your boat? Interesting answer. I supposed staying on the deck is your number one safety rule.

2/. Do you fish for your own food?
Do have anything on board to cook your own food?

Dave’s answer:

I have fished from our earlier boat in Canada with my wife, when we were not in a hurry to get anywhere, but not on this trip. I had a galley with a sink, oven, stove top, refrigeration, even a microwave, but electrical appliances that ran on AC current were shut off while at sea. AC power was much too big of a battery drain, although I had three batteries, not like car batteries, but huge. Each battery was about the size of 10 car batteries, but AC power drained them in a hurry

Patty’s response :
A picture tells a thousand words. That’s a nice little kitchen. Drain on the battery is something else I wouldn’t have thought of. Battery power is probably very important.

3/. What type of food did you make while traveling?

Dave’s answer:

My diet was not different from what it is now, except that anything that needed refrigeration was only available for a week, when I put a couple of blocks of ice in the fridge with milk, lettuce, fresh meat, cheese, etc.

Patty’s response?
A week isn’t a very long time and if you are conserving battery power then I would have thought your diet would be far more limited.

4/. Did you ever meet anyone else travelling while in the middle of the ocean?

Dave’s answer:

Not any other sailboats, but I did cross paths with about 8 or 10 cargo ships during the three years. We would talk to each other about chatty stuff, family, destinations, and course changes we might have to make to avoid each other. I always enjoyed that. I was contacted by a Coast Guard C130 that circled me from above, and was somehow able to read the name on my boat. They wanted to know if I was all right, where I was going, and if they could assist me in anyway. Everyone is very friendly, and we always treated each other as special.

Pattys response:
The Coast Guard contacted you to see how you are doing? That’s so very cool. It IS their job to make sure everyone’s safe so it’s nice to read your experience with them. It’s nice to know everyone was friendly. No pirates lurking in the waters. Lol
C130? Is that a Hercules?

Here’s our Coast Guard


5/. Did you stop at harbours or ports along the way?

Dave’s answer:

That's what I did during the summer in Alaska and on my way down the inland passage.

Pattys response :
That’s so cool. Did you swim then?
Meet new people? Go shopping for fresh food?

6/. Do you have a reservoir of fresh water that you need to refill at certain places?

Dave’s answer:

carried 120 gallons of water, and of course canned food is mostly water. On the trip to Hawaii, I only used about 20 gallons of fresh water. That surprised me.

Pattys response:

That surprises me also. Don’t you use fresh water to shower?

 

[PeppermintPatty]

They should be! We are the most dangerous animal on earth.

I lived in Wyoming for a few years, had moose all around. In the winter they would come right into town. I could see how they might be dangerous, a very large animal and if you got too close they get mad. You can see the hair raise up on the back of their neck... People would get "moosed in", that is what it was called when one would settle on your porch to escape the snow. Usually had to call the Game and Fish to run them off.

I was particular worried at night, in the dark they were hard to see and it was easy to walk up on one. Once a big bull decided he wasn't leaving the plowed road, he would charge first one way then the other. Backed traffic up for a long time.

Omg! Someone else who thinks that mankind is the most dangerous animal on earth.
ABSOLUTELY!

Poor moose. I feel bad for animals that walk into civilized property and get frustrated. It’s quite sad to witness.

 

[Alligatorob]

Poor moose. I feel bad for animals that walk into civilized property and get frustrated.

When it happened in Wyoming it was just the moose trying to find food in winter. They naturally migrate down into lower elevation valleys where snow is less deep and forage easier to find. Problem is these days we are living in those valleys...

For similar reasons we get a lot more deer here, at my house, in winter than summer, particularly late in a particularly snowy winter. All too often it goes bad for the deer, lots are killed on the road. But they are a smaller, less aggressive animal, never heard of one attacking.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

When it happened in Wyoming it was just the moose trying to find food in winter. They naturally migrate down into lower elevation valleys where snow is less deep and forage easier to find. Problem is these days we are living in those valleys...

For similar reasons we get a lot more deer here, at my house, in winter than summer, particularly late in a particularly snowy winter. All too often it goes bad for the deer, lots are killed on the road. But they are a smaller, less aggressive animal, never heard of one attacking.

Mankind has killed off 83% of our wild animal species due to civil development. It’s very sad.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Throughout most of the 1980's and 90's I was a dedicated sea kayaker. Puget Sound, to the north of me, was a paradise for that hobby, I was a member of an active club which sponsored day trips nearly every weekend and longer more challenging expeditions on a regular basis. At one time, I owned three boats, a 17 ft tupperware knock around, a sporty and agile 17 foot fiberglass kayak, and a 21 foot long cruising kayak.

I did a bit of offshore paddling with the big boat and made a few trips through parts of the inland passage. Sadly, jet skis became popular and the people with a nice boats but no brains throught it great fun to harass sea kayakers. For me at least, those clowns took all the enjoyment out of kayaking.

You sound like you were a serious kayaker.
It’s a shame that you had those with boats and jet skis hassle you. That’s the real downfall in kayaking or canoeing in the ocean. With more room for other boats going past you, it can ruin a good adventure. We’ve experienced that while boating in the ocean.

There’s less chance of that happening while canoeing on rivers. Small lakes are another story.

Did you get a sea kayak because you are closer to the sea ? And do you still have 3 sea kayaks? Are there any rivers near you that you could kayak on?

We bought our kayaks from Costco. I purchased mine first and my husband bought his a few weeks later.

Heres a picture of the kayak in fresh water and one in the Atlantic Ocean