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| - | ==== Hood Canal Paddle, July 4th, 2007. ==== | ||
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| - | **Shane Baker** \\ | ||
| - | 07/05/07 #3226 | ||
| - | |||
| - | "Never again." The words spoken by my paddling partner, Jim Zimmerman\\ | ||
| - | as his feet hit the gravel beach at Salisbury point County Park, just\\ | ||
| - | north of the Hood Canal Bridge. Jim is the men's single surfski\\ | ||
| - | winner at the last two Length of the Lake races (100 km) up in\\ | ||
| - | British Columbia. We had just paddled the length of the Hood Canal, a\\ | ||
| - | body of water in Northwestern, WA State that separates the Olympic\\ | ||
| - | and Kitsap Peninsulas. Jim was on his one week old Epic V-10 and me\\ | ||
| - | on my Huki S1-X. The Canal is generally 1-2 miles wide, around 500'\\ | ||
| - | deep and is shaped like a fish hook. Our distance paddled was a bit\\ | ||
| - | over 57 miles, air temperature over 80 F and the wind, the bloody\\ | ||
| - | wind 0-20 mph. For the last week the only breezes we felt around here\\ | ||
| - | were from the South which would have helped us. Yesterday the wind\\ | ||
| - | blew from the North, right in our faces for a distance of over 40 or\\ | ||
| - | more miles. At times I would estimate 20 mph. Having no backup or\\ | ||
| - | bail out plan we pressed on until done. We arose at 3:30 am and were\\ | ||
| - | on the water at 5:10 at Belfair State Park. As the miles and time\\ | ||
| - | slipped by we passed the towns of Tahuya, DeWatto, Holly Seabeck, Old\\ | ||
| - | Bangor and Lofall on the right and Hoodsport Lilliwaup and Brinnon on\\ | ||
| - | the left. The Olympic Mountains looked spectacular to our left\\ | ||
| - | namely, Mt. Washington, the Brothers and Mt. Constance. At times we\\ | ||
| - | were able to see Mt. Baker to the North. Our adventure was pretty\\ | ||
| - | uneventful for the first 40 miles. We stopped twice to straighten up\\ | ||
| - | and empty bladders. Then everything changed. The wind really picked\\ | ||
| - | up from the North, right from our direction of travel. As we\\ | ||
| - | approached Bangor Submarine Base I told Jim to stay out in the middle\\ | ||
| - | of the Canal as I wasn't sure how far out the unrestricted area\\ | ||
| - | stretched. Well, as luck would have it after paddling 40 miles we\\ | ||
| - | were tired and Jim hulied. This water is deadly, never getting above\\ | ||
| - | 45 F and he was having trouble remounting his surfski. I finally\\ | ||
| - | decided that I would have to help so pulled alongside and steadied\\ | ||
| - | his ski until he was able to get back on board. We paddled over to\\ | ||
| - | the East side of the canal, just South of the Bangor Base fence. Jim\\ | ||
| - | got all his stuff back in order and we continued on. We wandered a\\ | ||
| - | bit close to the base so a bunch of blue lights came on and a warning\\ | ||
| - | came over some loudspeakers that we were in a restricted area and\\ | ||
| - | must leave. We immediately turned away from the Base but must have\\ | ||
| - | been moving too slowly as out came a couple of Homeland Security\\ | ||
| - | rigid hull inflatables. We were interviewed for 20 minutes or so. I\\ | ||
| - | happened to have a copy of my drivers license which was a good thing.\\ | ||
| - | Jim didn't carry any ID. We were threatened with arrest and the\\ | ||
| - | seizure of our skis but were finally released. We still had over 15\\ | ||
| - | miles to paddle into this 15-20 mph wind. Sometimes things just don't\\ | ||
| - | go right. We continued on finally getting beyond the Base, then hit\\ | ||
| - | the beach for some refreshments and paddled the remaining distance\\ | ||
| - | near the shoreline until we passed under the Hood Canal Bridge. Jim\\ | ||
| - | mentioned that one of the greatest sights that he had ever seen was\\ | ||
| - | my van and wife in the parking lot at the boat ramp. I have witnessed\\ | ||
| - | that before so it was normal for me. Neither of us had any blisters,\\ | ||
| - | cramps or sunburn. I thought it was a great adventure and was\\ | ||
| - | considering making it an annual single surfski race with PFD's\\ | ||
| - | required to be worn, no drafting allowed but Jim said I may be the\\ | ||
| - | only competitor so it won't happen. Hope you all had a good Fourth of\\ | ||
| - | July also. I had a blast.\\ | ||
| - | Shane Baker. | ||
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