ABC Challenge Weekend-Saturday 6/22/2008

Since Sweet was in Idaho all week and Pablo Mac was otherwise "obligated", I took it upon myself to find some Geocaches on my own. I've never been into Geocaching by myself, but what else was a Dude to do...sit around the house and watch TV? I think NOT!

I had made plans earlier with my Dad to meet in Corvallis on Saturday to try out some kayaks at Michael's Landing. Peak Sports was offering free demonstrations for people to come down and try them out. I had never paddled a kayak before, but they looked like fun and my Mom & Dad have been considering buying some. Hey, it's free and something to do! Before we went out, my Dad and I shared some pizza and some sodas overlooking the Willamette River. Then it was down to the boat launch.
I tried out two different kayaks and was amazed at how easy they are to paddle. The current on the Willamette was quite fast at this time of year, but it was quite easy to stay even on the river, or even move upstream. The kayak in this picture is a fairly inexpensive one (≈ $800). It is much heavier, less maneuverable, harder to make way, but more stable. Not too bad for a weekend warrior, but I wouldn't want to take a long trek with it.

The other kayak I tried out was longer and sleeker, and more expensive (≈ $2300). This kayak was a "performance model" kayak with carbon fiber paddles and an aramid bottom-half hull. This kayak was much more maneuverable than the one shown here, but much less stable. In fact, as I was returning to shore, I made a rookie mistake and turned the kayak sideways in the current and then paddled on the upstream side. This threw my balance off just enough that I ended up wet...up to my neck. I did manage to swim the kayak to shore, and the water-craft representatives were very impressed with my ability to rescue the kayak "so they didn't even have to get wet". I got a little embarassed, and a high-five from the rep! Fortunately I wore a swimming suit and water sandels. Unfortunately, I forgot my towel and an extra shirt!

I wrung my shirt out and headed back to the car with my Dad. We talked for a bit while I dried out. Then he said goodbye and I was left not wanting to go home yet. I just finished a nice cool swim, and had a lot of energy. Time to pull out my trusty GPSr. Wow! There is a Geocache a couple of hundred feet from the car. I decided to walk down there and grab it. Hey, why not...I'm too wet to sit in my car and drive home. I found the cache pretty quickly and then I got the Geocaching bug. I headed back to the car, changed my shoes, and starting walking into downtown Corvallis. I searched for "Welcome to Corvallis", but was unable to find it (as it turned out-it had been Muggled). I then continued south and found another ASoUC cache, DNFed another, an ended my walk with an amazingly lucky find. The coordinates took me to an obvious hiding location, but there was no cache to be found. As I was heading back to the car, I looked to my left and there it was...more than 100' away from the posted coordinates. I thought that was a great way to end my Saturday. I headed home to log my finds.

Tomorrow is another day.