Late August Gorge Trip - Day One

La and I took a trip up to the PNW.  First stop was dropping me off at the eastern part of the Gorge.  Nick was camping with some other friends from San Diego - and he said crashing was not a problem!

Driving through the Gorge was pretty cool - lots of beautiful scenery and the wind on the water looked nuclear!

And the water was not that cold (at this time of year).

We pulled up to the campsite, offloaded my stuff and I was assembling the parawinging stuff.

AFS Silk 850/USurf 135/Standard fuselage on the Cedrus Evolution Surf mast all bolted on to No.34

I had the BRM Maliko 2.9 and S3 3.4 in th3 pouch.

This has been on my bucket list for quite some time - and having Nick as a guide made the learning curve go quick.  With current opposing wind in a narrow channel, there were some things to work out.

The front half was really cool - after getting my bearings, I followed the other guys downwind.  Waist high swell in a river headed up current.  Normally you'd want to go upwind to develop your margin of safety (and not have to walk back) - here the current will take you back upwind if you have issues getting up on foil.

Riding swell in a river with the parawing put away is definitely a different experience - especially with uber nuking winds at your back driving everything.

The back half of this first session was super challenging - the wind was shifting and trying to get up in short period chop is not the easiest thing.  But I eventually made it back to the launch.

The swell bumps were not evenly distributed across the river - on this run the rides were better on the Washington side 

Admittedly I spent most of this session trying to get back to the launch - the winds were really strong and towards the Rufus side they were shifting.  I broke out the Maliko 2.9 but even that was a little too big.  I left the Flysurfer POW V1 1.7 and 2.5 back home (not thinking I would need them due to the declining wind forecast).  But the real issue was the shifting direction and not the parawing size.

This time of year it stays light until around 2030 - so after resting, catching up and waiting for the wind to settle, we went back out for a second session.  I took the same gear and used the BRM S3 3.4

With the wind more consistent, this was a much better session.  I still got some retracted parawing rides in, but the swell wasn't as ride focused.  In fact I didn't see the need to go far downwind and was happy just doing the run in front of Maryhill.

The S3 3.4 was perfect as was the Silk 850/USurf 135

The wind was up all night - no glass off.

What a Saturday!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:95/FD:61/S:25

I'm On A Boat!!!

Almost... Our current RV slot has us butted up to the water though. That's the Banana River in the background. Besides the mosquitoes (and the fish that are NOT taking my lures/flies), this place is perfection. I still don't have a job so we are preparing to home school the kids, but with views like this, I'm starting to NOT want to get a job.

First Stop on with the Land Yacht

Our first stop this summer after we cast off from life in Reston/the Navy/in a house was Portersville, PA. This was our first pull through slot for the camper (nice!). We were surrounded by much larger Class A RVs, but we stuck out because of our character.

Camping Retrograde

We're going to need some more of this - toilet paper formulated for mobile toilets. Our next trip will have a full hookup (water supply and sewage). The trip out to Jane's took 5 hours due to traffic. The trip back home was just under 4 hours. The only other trick we learned was to shower one last time after all the work to pack up (so you don't leave all sweaty) - Thanks Joe N for that one! We got most of the things we brought stowed away in the trailer cabinets. Our next trip we will continue to do the same so our departure from the Northern Virginia area will be easier. Jane's Island in SE Maryland is a really cool place - reserve your time slot there!!!

Camping 6/21/2014, Part 2

Fruits of the day!!!

Fishing Report 6/21/2014, Part 2

After a while, we jumped on our boards and paddled out to the barrier islands further into the Chesapeake. Of course I had tackle onboard and Noe and I caught a few crabs along the way. When we beached, I was hoping to catch a flounder, but there were very few fish around. I did see tons of Stripped Killifish, but none of the bigger predatory fish. Marlon and La paddled their boards really efficiently - the narrower boards definitely paddled faster than the aircraft carrier that had two people on deck. Fun paddle regardless!!!

Camping Trip Day 2, Fishing Report 6/21/2014 Part 1

Everything is better with bacon... We went crabbing in the early morning using two methods - first was the standard crab trap. Put the chicken at the bottom of the net and chuck it out there for the crabs to munch on. After a few minutes, pull the trap up and pick out the correct sized crabs. The second method was using our spinning rods with a weighted jighead hook and place the piece of chicken on the hook. Cast out and wait for a tug, then slowly reel the crab in and bring it up with a landing net. The kids had a great time because most of the crabs in the morning were really small and feisty - giving them a chance to perfect their crab handling technique.

Camping Trip Day One

We went camping again last Friday - this time to Jane's Island in SE Maryland. I got new tires for the trailer - lots of tread on them still but the old ones had some delamination in the tread area from age. I also used a 2" drop hitch this time and minus the squat on the rear suspension of the truck, the towing configuration looks better. The kids caught some toads around the camp site. I personally don't like touching toads myself - but they didn't mind at all. The fire burned until 10pm when we all were pretty tired. Next time I light a fire, I see which way the wind is blowing first - with the traffic in and out, enough smoke got in that we had the smell inside for a while. The more we use the camper, the better it'll get! This trip we still did not have a sewage hookup.