Finally - A great day at Blue Ridge Reservoir

Barry called Thursday night to ask if I wanted to go to Blue Ridge Reservoir on Friday. It turns out that Diana and I are headed to San Diego this coming Friday, which was when Barry abd I were supposed to be headed to Blue Ridge.

I had hoped to paddle on Blue Ridge for my first time out on open water with the Old Town Vapor 10 that I've had for several months now. Barry has an inflatable boat with an electric trolling motor.

Part of the trip was to go fishing for trout. Blue Ridge is stocked each year. Andy, who is an avid fisherman would be going too. Part of the reason for switching Fridays was that Blue Ridge is scheduled to be lowered so that they can work on one of the valves that controls the level of the water. We didn't want to miss a chance aince we don't know how much the wayer level will be lowered nor how quickly.

This was my first time out with the kayak and to a place I've visited but never boated on. I had been hoping to make Blue Ridge my first, and it was.

The day was all I hoped for. Great weather, not too hot, not too cold. We saw a few canoes, a few kayakers, and a couple of small fishing boats.

Barry and Andy caught a couple of trout. I brought my fishing pole, more to see how it worked trolling behind as I paddled than to worry about serious fishing on this trip.

I also got to try out my new waterproof camera. I took some movies with it, many still shots, and even some semi-submerged shots. All turned out fine. I'll post them on the website. High Def video from the bow of the kayak. Yes!

On the paddle back to the launching ramp a fellow in a small fishing boat steered toward me. He yelled out asking if I had a pair of diagonal cutters. I had just packed them that morning in one of my cargo bags. He had caught a 14" rainbow trout, but as he was taking the lure out the fish wiggled and one of the treble hooks got this guy in the palm of his hand.

It took a few tries, but we eventually got the hook cut with the cutters and slid the cut off hook through and out of his hand. All ended well.

When Barry, Andy and I were getting the boats out of the water, the fisherman came over and offered Andy the three trout that he had caught. Nice fellow. Andy likes to put the trout in his smoker for later eating.

Great day today!

Diana and I went to several stores today. I don't think we have done that much shopping on a single day in ages.

First we went to Walmart. We were shopping for an inexpensive Slimline phone to use with our new NetTalk VOIP. That allows us to get rid of our landline and go with an Internet based phone system. While at Walmart we saw a package of three drybags of various sizes. Not heavy duty, but at least water-resistant. The bags have roll tops and should be handy for packing some of the loose stuff on deck and into the hull of the kayak.

Then we went to REI. What a surprise, there were hardly any parking spaces left in the lot. Today was the start of their Anniversary Sake with a 20% off coupon coming in the mail to members with the flyer. Some items in the store are also 15% (some kayaks) to 25% on some full priced items.

One thing that I saw that I think would be a good addition to my kayaking gear were the REI brand 10 x 26 waterproof binoculars. Diana "might" get those for my birthday - YEAH!

Actually went into the store to look for a pair of nylon cargo shorts. Cotton is comfortable but not good if you go into the water. Cotton will quickly absorb water and become very heavy.

Line was long at checkout, so we'll go back for the binoculars tomorrow. No luck on nylon shorts tough so we headed for Dick's Sporting Goods. Found a nice pair of nylon cargo shorts as well as two lightweight foldup chairs for less than $10.00 each.

Getting Anxious

Most of the upgrade projects for the kayak have been completed. Have all of the basic components: paddle, pfd, etc. The weather is warming up and have heard that the road into Blue Ridge Reservoir is open, although muddy in spots. Haven't had any new snow in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday some extra batteries arrived for the new camera, so I plan on taking some still pictures and maybe even video of the first real voyage. My wife is already talking about some sort of picnic outing, perhaps to some place like Woods Canyon Lake which is much more shore friendly for those not going out on the water.

Kayak Hangar

After some frustration with the hook eye ends on the bungee cord and deck rigging I was ready for a simpler project. The kayak had been sitting on the garage floor for a couple of weeks now, waiting for a couple of small improvements. Since I am away most of the week, and having many other honey-do and other woodworking projects that are high priority, the kayak has been sitting idle most of the time.

The weather hasn't been cooperating either. I had hoped to get in some time on the water, but here in the high country the roads to the lakes were either snowed in or closed by the Forest Service to avoid making a mess out of them. An unexpected late 10" snowfall extended the closures for another week.

Getting the kayak off the floor and out of the saw dust and other projects way moved to the head of the list. If you can't go paddling, work on a better storage solution.

After looking at several ways to store the kayak, weighing costs and space requirements, I decided to use hangar straps from NRS. These came from Austin Canoe and Kayak and cost less than $20.00.

Details of where and how this was installed see Herb's Kayak.