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| My cozy cabin hidden back in the woods. |
A long time since the last time I have touched base with everyone. I blame the environment I am in because it has been demanding my time in a good way. April was rainy. There’s no way around it but it does rain its fair share out here. You become strangely comfortable in the steady light rain that touches down in many of the spring days. I’ve been resting and re-habing my left ankle so the rain is beneficial because it reduces the temptation to do high impact sports that I usually participate in.
An example of why I can’t get enough of the northwest was how the final day of the Master’s golf tourney finished up. It’s a confusing way to start but let me finish. I was snuggled up on my friend Amanda’s futon while she and her boyfriend went down to Panama for three weeks. The month of April was a month of house sitting while enjoying privacy and solitude each night I was there. That excludes the cats and dogs I had to care for. It is a cabin a little bit further west on the Well’s property. Jim and Sally actually used to live in it back in the 80’s when there was no electricity. Rustic propane lamps line the walls inside the cabin. It was a calm and secluded cabin to spend a few weeks.
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| The view of my class III from my hike the next weekend. |
I was cozy in front of my wood-burning heater enjoying a lazy day when I got a text to go kayaking down the Klickitat River. Lazy day no more.
I came out to the “adventure shed,” I like to call it, to meet Jim and Dan to get the rafts ready for our river run. Jim and Dan have both kayaked more than I ever will in my life and were kick ass to take me along on a kayak journey. We took brand new Cascadia inflatable kayaks along with us and after we packed up the trailer we ventured to the put in. Kayak lingo was being spit on the ride there and I was learning a lot of the kayaking safety ways but I was just ready to get out there and paddle.
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| There's the class III again. |
On to the water. These IKs were maneuverable and a smooth ride down the river. We chugged down the Klickitat canyon and stopping at some of the eddies (calm water) to stop off and chat about what is next down the river. It was peaceful and pleasant with just enough adrenaline to clear your mind and really soak in the oak covered canyon that engulfed us. I would follow Dan’s line (route) through class I and class II rapids and gain confidence each section that we completed. Jim and Dan are considering getting a permit for this section so they will be able to bring teenagers out for an afternoon and teach them the fundamentals of paddling a river. So I guess you could say that I was the beginner guinea pig...I’ll be a guinea pig any day for this!
The time has come for the grand finale of going through a stretch of class III rapids and see what I’m made out of. Class III are the first level of rapids that really present any danger of flipping your boat or anything like that. In the beginning I was considering taking out a little early and skipping the class III but I did well on the stretches previously so I decided to go for it. I followed Dan as he took the line in from the left and straightened out through the first part of the rapids. There is a pretty big rock or current that is in the middle of the run where Dan took a route around it on the left but with my lack of control I hit that baby head on. I was in control in the sense that I was able to hit the rapid straight on so the tip of my kayak flew up in the air but I held it together to make it through without flipping. It felt great and I felt safe. I felt accomplished and confident about another float down a river sometime.
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| Some lenticular clouds. View from my new place. |
So the point I wanted to make when I started this long overdue post was that any ordinary day of watching the Masters on TV can being pleasantly interrupted by a fellow neighbor wanting to go kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, swimming, or any of the other activities that surround the area I am in.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY MOM / GRANDMA BEEJ / GRANDMA BURKE!
Luke Davis
