Living on the most eastern of the San Juan archipelago islands, Fidalgo island, the variety of trip & training paddle routes from here are endless. While strong currents do exist in nearly every channel surrounding our island shores, learning how to use these currents to travel in the back eddies, the mid-channel-river-like 'green tongue', along with harnessing the strength of the winds (with kayak sails), is what paddling the San Juans is all about to us... Efficiency. Speed. Using what Nature offers to help us achieve our paddling (distance travelling & racing speed) goals. Which sometimes mandates a combination of styles & skills from river and sea kayaking mixed in with occasional surfing and sailing. Adreline rushes. Personal Speed Records. Risk-taking. Innovation. ~Paddle the Islands and let Nature Inspire.~

Monday, June 27, 2011

Mountains to Sound Relay 2011

           Mountains to Sound Relay 2011 from Island Paddlers on Vimeo.

One man, One day, One hundred miles!!

Pacific Northwest native and adventure sport expert Jimmy Z. earned himself some impressive bragging rights as he dug deep for a good cause, doing what he does best from Cascade Mountain trails to Puget Sound waterways...

While racing in Seattle's 6th annual Mountains to Sound Relay, an event which has "contributed over $50,000 towards improving trails and recreation along the Mountains to Sound Greenway, for the I-90 Corridor from Thorpe to the shores of Seattle."

In a 17 mile mountain bike, 46 mile road bike, 12 mile kayak leg, 13.1 mile/ half marathon run and a final 10 km 'sprint' race to the finish...

With many liters of water, Gatorade, Gel Shots & caffeinated power gummies later...

Through leg cramps and into the pukes...

He surprised himself (but not us supporters:) with a strong, 1st place IRONMAN finish at 8 hours and 20 minutes in Seattle's finest fundraising, multisport relay race!

WAY TO GO JIM!!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bavarian Bike & Brew 2011

We rose at 4am to depart our Fidalgo island home by sunrise
and head East over the Cascade mountains to our favorite lil' Bavarian town of Leavenworth for Jim's second year in a row of participating in a grueling, 24 mile mountain bike race...
To give it all on an incredible race course that starts off with 1800 feet of elevation gain in the first 4 miles, grinding racers up to the top of a high alpine ridge
with rewarding spectacular craggy-peaked views, before bombing it back down into the forest through creeks and over rollers to the finish line far below.

At last years race just months after having back-to-back spinal surgeries for a rough water paddling injury, it was difficult and painful for me to even walk up the hill to where the start line was to watch Jim's race...
So this year at the last minute I decided to also compete in the 14th annual Bavarian Bike & Brew ,  in the 8 mile (1 lap) beginner class race simply for my own personal, huge sense of feel goooood accomplishment of  being able to cross the finish line on my bike instead of in a back brace and a cane...
(Who knows what next year's race will bring:)
Jim loves this course because it reminds him of the kind of terrain he grew up riding back on his home alpine slopes of Mount Rainier.
With temperatures in the 80's, it just kept getting better ane better when we went exploring for a place to set up camp and found more than we hoped for down Icicle Creek Road...
*Not pictured are the 4 foot long snake and young bear that I saw close up, but fumbled with my camera in excitement and missed taking pics of either!
All in all another great weekend playing with friends in our adventure sport paradise home o' the Pacific Northwest. 

Friday, June 3, 2011

Whidbey island circumnavigation

90.5 miles in 18 hours of paddling over 2.5 days.
 We had the time of our lives this past Memorial Day weekend, with the weather and current goddesses aligning for once and giving us the absolute perfect travelling conditions to accomplish our latest (big ass;) paddling goal in the least amount of pain possible- circumnavigating Whidbey island in our tandem Necky Nootka sea kayak, the largest isle in the Puget Sound and one of the longest in America.
The night before embarking on this ultra marathon paddle journey, I overheard Jim answering a friends inquiry as to why we would want to take on this uber endurance challenge.  I chuckled to myself as I heard him reply simply with the classic line made famous by early Everest mountaineer George Mallory, "Because it is there."
And so after months of training, the last few evenings of pre-departure gear pile-making and dry bag packing, we excitedly launched on Saturday morning a little later than planned at just after 8am from Cornet Bay, into flat water with a slight drizzle and gentle headwind breeze. Within a few miles we passed Ala Spit and began getting a good speed boost from favorable currents. We rode that for miles gratefully down into Saratoga Passage and kept going comfortably at a good pace until about 20 miles in, when we stopped for lunch next to Cama State Park.
Then as forecast we watched the seas start rippling and waves appearing (we didn't believe it could be happening since how often is our PNW marine forecast actually accurate?!;)  We sat on the warm beach rocks savoring our PBJ sandwiches as we watched the winds change direction and increase in intensity, giggling at the afternoon possibilities...
So we pulled out the sail and suction cupped it on the deck before launching again, for what would turn into the kayak sailin' ride of our lives, a freaking awesome 20 mile downwind sail & surf run! We flew by Langely, Camano Head, Getney island & Clinton, laughing away as we were connecting set after set beautifully at speeds of 7~9 mph!
 Tired as we were, we figured it was a no brainer that we weren't not going to use the perfect kayak-sailing conditions given to us, so we rode the winds all the way to the south end of the island for an incredible 43 mile first day!
We would have probably kept going another hour or two if we could have continued with the help of the sail, but rounding the south end of the island we were met with a wall of headwinds, so with our screaming muscles and roaring bellies we instead pulled out onto a ruggedly homeless beach and set up pirate camp for the night. Exhausted and giddy we enjoyed our instant jasmine rice and Indian curry while watching the most beautiful sunset over the Olympics and Mount Rainier.
Sunday morning we were woken early by barking sea lions near 5am, and jumped up to get water boiling and gear packed and on the water as quick as possible. Again currents were with us as soon as we launched, so the miles and hours flew by enjoyably...
Until we hit Admiralty Inlet just south of Fort Casey. The strong currents then changed and started kicking our tired tooshes.  By the time we made it to the State Park we'd already planned at stopping at for lunch, we were at 25 miles for the day, 68 miles total, and both ready to be done.
So we grabbed the second to last available campsite amongst a city of RV's, and treated ourselves to a lunch of hot sandwiches and Mike's hard lemonades from the Keystone Cafe. Then spent the rest of the afternoon napping in the sun in the grass on top off the bluff at the old military fort as crowds of tourists frolicked around us.
Sunday morning we again rose at 5am and got on the water just after 6am. Launching off of the beach next to the Keystone ferry, we got sucked right into a raging rip and up to speeds over 10 mph for a few miles. Not yet fully caffeinated I wasn't quite awake yet or as ready for the sudden bucking bronco raging rip ride as Jim was, but who needs coffee after that wave-slapping, coooold watered good morning!
We stayed offshore a half mile to a mile for a lot of the morning up the westside, as the military has restricted waters and we didn't feel like getting chased. The swells from the wide open fetch of Strait of Juan de Fuca were gentle and kind, and pushed up our speeds each wave as well, so we made it back to Deception Pass just after max flood and in time to get rocket-shot through the Pass at over 11mph to end our trip back at Cornet Bay by 11am on our third day!
We were so happy to get home early, get the salty gear rinsed and hung to dry. Barely back on land an hour Jim took off on a couple hour mountain bike ride.  Already getting into the zone for next weekends race while we'd both alternate smiling at each other knowingly over the next few days, overflowing with endorphin-fueled inner rainbows from this mega mission accomplished trip.  :)