#154 - Multi-modal solo kayaking and cycling on the US west coast and the Inside Passage with Katrin Tomanek

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Paddling the Blue. With each episode, we talk with guests from the

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Great Lakes and around the globe who are doing cool things related to sea kayaking.

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I'm your host, my name is John Chase, and let's get started paddling the blue.

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Welcome to today's episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

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Katrin Timonik started paddling only a few years ago and has since decided to

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focus on multimodal trips using a kayak and a bike with as little driving between

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her start and end points as possible.

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She started with a three-day trip and expanded her reach to the Inside Passage and Vancouver Island.

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So enjoy today's discussion of learning and discovery.

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Before we get to today's conversation with Katrin, James Stevenson and Simon

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Check out onlinewhitewater.com. Use the coupon code PTBpodcast to check out and explore.

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And speaking of explore, enjoy today's interview with Kitren Denoptimonic.

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Hi, Katrin. Welcome to Paddling the Blue. Hey, John. Thank you for having me.

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Yes. Nice to virtually meet you. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to have

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a chat with you. So first, tell us a little bit about you as a paddler.

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I started kayaking probably rather late in life, about this point,

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seven years ago, after I had a about 10-year climbing career,

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climbing everywhere in the world.

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And when I moved to the United States in 2014, I really was super excited about climbing in Yosemite.

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Climbing in the CRS, doing all these things very intensely for one year until

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I was so burned out of driving from San Francisco to Yosemite about every weekend

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that I started to look for local adventures.

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And that first brought me to cycling and then more accidentally, actually, to kayaking.

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And the accident was that my sister visited me here and we've been planning

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on doing some other things, but she had torn her meniscus.

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And for that reason, she barely couldn't do anything. And we just drove around

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the coast and we happened to find a sit-on-top kayak at a campsite we stayed

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at in the larger Mendocino area.

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And, you know, we took this bulky, huge sit-on-top kayak into the ocean,

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knowing nothing about it.

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And we had a ton of fun. And that basically started everything.

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Okay. So a sit-on-top started it all for you.

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All right. So we took it out another day, you know, wearing wetsuits, not knowing anything.

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I think from what I remember, we maybe had three to four foot waves,

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but we got totally pummeled.

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And, you know, luckily we didn't get injured because we really had this huge

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kayak on top of us mostly. But yeah, it started a huge motivation and then it

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took me another couple of months actually into the next year in 2017 for me

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to actually get starting and take classes.

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Okay. Now, how did you build your skills to get ready for the trips that you've undertaken since then?

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I started with whitewater kayaking and specifically with classes.

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I took a class or two classes from Liquid Fusion up in Mendocino.

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I started extremely impatient because, you know, I had this 10 year of climbing

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career behind me, which, you know, it took me very long to build up skills.

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And I was impatient enough that I didn't feel like I can wait another 10 years

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until I'm sort of proficient.

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So I, yeah, I tried to take classes and again, going out every weekend.

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And I think I had a crazy year of whitewater kayaking where,

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again, every weekend going out on some rivers and just climbing the ladder of

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whitewater difficulties.

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Okay. All right. Now, do you still whitewater as well?

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No, basically barely, barely ever. I think it was a mix of progressing to fast.

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I feel I built up fear over the years, over the months. It wasn't even years,

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but over the months, which I never had doing kayaking.

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But at some point, you know, it all came together and I was sitting there and

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I was like, holy shit, there's so many, so many things that could have gone

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wrong. And luckily they didn't. Okay.

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But as Jeff from Liquid Fusion would have said, whitewater of the sea,

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do you play with that at all? I did a little bit, yeah.

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And, you know, when you do the easier whitewater rivers in California,

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you can get there within two hours from San Francisco.

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And then, you know, as you progress, you want to do the bigger stuff and you want to go further.

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And after a few months, I was back to the driving distances I did for climbing before.

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And that was the point for me. this and the combination of

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fear that had sort of accumulated that was the the

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point was like there could be something else that's closer and

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then i realized san francisco is actually just right next to the ocean so how

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about i try this all right so tell us about your first first

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sea kayaking experience my first sea kayaking

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experiences were still in my whitewater kayak because i didn't have

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another kayak so i did a larger circumnavigation of

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it's called alameda island it's one of the islands here a

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15 mile trip in my super short whitewater boat which was very fun to just the

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sense of movement and just going and that's really what i've been feel what

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i've been missing in whitewater kayaking the sense of just endurance ongoing

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without making this more dangerous you know more difficult just just continuous endurance kayaking.

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And then the next step was basically to take this whitewater kayak out in the

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ocean and going up to Mendocino.

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You know, there's all these caves, wonderful, wonderful scenery.

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And just exploring all of this still in a whitewater kayak.

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Wow. So that's some endurance, 15 miles in a whitewater kayak around the island.

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Yeah. And then I believe in 2019, yeah, this hunger for an expedition without

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knowing what exactly that would mean to me.

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But that came up and I was searching for something and some local kayaker recommended

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to me, we could kayak to the Channel Islands as a first trip, basically.

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And so I had just started to demo kayaks and one of our local kayak shops had

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a deal to demo different kayaks for a pretty good price.

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And so I would basically, my first mini expedition was a trip to Anacapa at

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the Channel Islands with a borrowed sea kayak that I hadn't been in before.

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And the first time in that boat was that trip to the Channel Islands? Yeah.

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Wow. Do you remember the boat? That was a dolphin.

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Well, that's fantastic. And

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then you've grown from there. So you've been working on multimodal trips.

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So tell us what a multimodal trip is.

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You know, it came... So multimodal for me basically means I try to drive as

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little as possible and try to shuttle by human power.

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Basically, I kayak one stretch and then I cycle one stretch.

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Sometimes I have to loop in a train.

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I've also taken Muni, public transportation in between.

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But the main motivation is to, instead of driving a lot, stringing different

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ways together to do these loops.

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Now, you had mentioned earlier, as you were talking about your climbing experience

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and then moving into Whitewater, and then as you expanded and wanted to do trips

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further away, you ended up driving more.

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And so I'm guessing that was one of your drivers, no pun intended,

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I guess, for deciding to start specializing in multimodal adventure.

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Yeah, there were a few trips that, you know, it just seemed like the shuttling

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would be just so much work.

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And you would always depend on someone, you know, who would be willing to drive

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a long distance and drive back, et cetera.

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And it started in 2020 in the pandemic. I did my first version of the trip down the Lost Coast.

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And I tried it at least. And that would have been a really long shuttle because

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getting to the what's called the Lost Coast in California is quite a long drive

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because the coast is called like that because the highway cannot go along the coast.

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It's so rugged that they had to build the highway significantly inland.

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And so then there's only small streets leading down to the coast.

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So had I shuttled this or I had I would have needed someone to drive many,

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many hours to get me to the beginning and then pick me up at the end.

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OK, so that was your first first one of these types of experiences.

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It says, tell us how, kind of walk us through that lost coast trip.

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So at this first trip, so that was October 2020. So that was one and a half

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years after I had gotten my first sea kayak.

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So pretty limited experience at that point.

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But the idea was I parked my bike at the southern end of what's called the Lost Coast.

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That is basically where the highway meets the ocean.

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And then I would drive to the northern part, about 100 miles north,

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leave my car there, and basically put my kayak in the water and start kayaking

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so that I would then, you know, kayak multiple days south back to where my bike was.

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So give us a description of what you experienced along the way with that lost coast trip.

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For me, that was the first time being in a really remote and wild setting by

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myself alone in a kayak and also at a coastline that I had never seen before.

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So that was, it was basically novelty on all, in all levels.

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What also happened in terms of novelty, and that was a part of my unpreparedness

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is that it was massively foggy, which, you know, not unexpected for this area, just to me,

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there were so many things I had to prepare that this totally caught me by surprise.

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And because of that, I had to shorten the trip to basically half the length

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to be able to do it. So I cut out the first two days, which are notoriously

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foggy, and basically started halfway.

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So how did you cut those out? So if you had to drive to the northern point and

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then have a bike at the southern point, how did you cut that first part out?

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There is a town-ish, a small town called Shelter Cove at about half the distance.

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So I was able to basically, Eureka, I couldn't get in the water,

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so I drove down to Shelter Cove and left my car there.

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Okay and then did the same you know the same bike the same bike plan okay in

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shelter in eureka i had i had made a plan with a friend to keep my car in shelter

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cove i hadn't and so you know when i drove to shelter cove i saw that there's

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a public parking lot and there was a bunch of fishermen,

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and i figured i'll just i'll just leave the car and get in the water and so

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i i remember asking the fishermen and they said like yeah sure it's fine but

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what do you want to do and they they were They were very quick to tell me stories

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about sharks and how someone had just been,

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you know, some other kayaker recently just been attacked and how I maybe should

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reconsider my adventure, which I didn't.

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I went and then when I came back five days later, they were extremely surprised

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to see me coming back to my car.

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Now, how much of those five days were on the water? Three. Three on the water.

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All right. And what made you choose a remote, foggy coast that was unknown to you as your first trip?

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I mean, it's, you know, the fogginess I didn't choose.

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Okay. Everything else is just the perfect ingredient for an adventure,

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right? It's, I mean, it's fairly close to home.

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You know, it's quite amazing to get such a remote piece of the world without

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needing to fly somewhere else.

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So that was definitely, and that was, you know, that was COVID time.

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So that was one of the motivations back then.

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It is rugged, it's wild. And for everyone who wants to do an expedition,

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I think that's really what we are striving for.

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Oh, sure. I mean, it sounds like a fantastic place. I'm just,

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I guess I was just curious as to what made you choose that remote section for

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one of your first really large experiences.

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But might as well go big for adventure, right? I guess so.

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You know, and again, that speaks probably to, in part, to the fact that I was

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still pretty inexperienced at that point.

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So over the three days, tell us what you experienced along the way.

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Because of that fog i literally had

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to navigate by gps back in

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the days i didn't really have any proper tools for

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kayaking so but i had my bike computer so i basically had

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a bike computer that shows a little map and i had put it

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in as i always did i had put it in a little you

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know like plastic bag so it could sit down my cockpit and

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i would basically go by the crash because

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this coastline is littered with with rocks and you

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know little arches and stuff so i really

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had to skirt it so that was quite quite exciting

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for me the conditions were besides the fog

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actually pretty good but it was very exciting to kayak

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somewhere where you haven't been you you almost can't see the coastline i remember

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one of the landings i could only see the coast when i was like 30 meters close

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and i had to navigate around some rocks okay but you could hear the water crashing

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on the rocks but you couldn't see it until you're about that 30 meters away okay.

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But, you know, again, the conditions were really good. It was pretty mild.

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And so all of that was good.

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It was just a very interesting feeling to go into fog. And I had never really done that before.

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Kayak through fog and just trust your, the little navigation I had.

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I did have a compass, you know, just trust all of that and just kayak into the unknown.

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Good. And so obviously you're on the edge a little bit, but still in a good way.

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Excellent. Well, now, how did you plan for that trip? I'm a big spreadsheet

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planner, you know, so that was a small spreadsheet.

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I've done much bigger spreadsheets later, I guess, but you know,

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I've been, I really like to plan where I'm planning to camp,

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especially on these sort of coastlines where you just can't camp everywhere.

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So I was doing this, I was talking to a friend who had done the coast of California

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before, you know, to, to know about possible landings.

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There's a website in California called the...

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California Coastal Project or something like that, which basically has photographs

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of the whole coastline that you can look at like bit by bit.

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And yeah, I was looking at a large part of the coastline to get a sense for

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what's happening, where can I land, what's problematic.

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Now, did you experience much wildlife along the way? Nothing really in the water,

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but I remember the second night,

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well, the second night I had a lot of elk really enjoying the space outside

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of my tent the whole night they were grazing all night that was pretty exciting

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you know when you when you're little afraid you have to pee all night so you

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basically can't sleep and i had to go out of my tent so many times the whole night.

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So that was quite exciting okay the this

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area has has bears black bears in california on

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my third night i landed somewhere on

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my second night so i landed somewhere where the moment i had

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landed in not the easiest landing

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i saw bear prints all over the place and so

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i couldn't really go elsewhere so that was that was also exciting okay another

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one of those nervous nights i guess another one yep how about i mean you know

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this whole experience was a big adventure with bringing me really bringing me

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to challenging me every every moment sure sure now how about other paddlers,

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No. No, and seeing none? No, no.

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All right. That really happens rarely on the West Coast, that you have randomly run into someone. Okay.

00:15:44.276 --> 00:15:46.696
Any other people at all? Let's see.

00:15:48.076 --> 00:15:51.296
Not on the paddle. No, there was no one. No. Well, excellent.

00:15:52.656 --> 00:15:57.916
That's a true proper adventure. So you learned things from that,

00:15:58.016 --> 00:15:59.196
and you took those to your next trip.

00:15:59.296 --> 00:16:02.536
But what kinds of things did you learn on that trip that you could take to the next trips?

00:16:03.156 --> 00:16:07.276
I mean, you know, the reading weather. I did read the weather quite a lot,

00:16:07.436 --> 00:16:09.396
but there's just more to learn about.

00:16:09.636 --> 00:16:12.876
This whole concept of fog and how it comes in and, you know,

00:16:13.076 --> 00:16:17.776
where areas are particularly prone, that is definitely something I've looked into a lot.

00:16:17.916 --> 00:16:20.736
Also, being more comfortable kayaking in fog.

00:16:20.836 --> 00:16:25.736
I've had fog very often after and, you know, with proper navigation and knowing

00:16:25.736 --> 00:16:27.356
where you're going, it can be fine.

00:16:27.616 --> 00:16:30.036
On this particular trip, those were the two things. But, you know,

00:16:30.156 --> 00:16:32.896
the other big learning was that that was an amazing experience.

00:16:32.916 --> 00:16:34.676
I really enjoyed this experience.

00:16:35.116 --> 00:16:38.096
And so I kept doing this instead of deciding that was terrible.

00:16:38.216 --> 00:16:41.116
I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah, it led you to more.

00:16:42.198 --> 00:16:46.938
Basically. Good. How did you know that you were ready for that trip early in your career?

00:16:47.418 --> 00:16:50.258
That is a good question. And, you know, honestly, when I did,

00:16:50.538 --> 00:16:54.258
when I repeated this trip last, last month, and basically I finished the whole

00:16:54.258 --> 00:16:57.878
stretch this time, I, I was wondering that myself as well.

00:16:57.958 --> 00:17:01.998
And I was thinking, yeah, that was quite bold to do that back then.

00:17:02.638 --> 00:17:05.938
Um, yeah, I was, I was sure that I could do the distances, you know,

00:17:05.998 --> 00:17:09.978
because I had done many long distance things and I've been solo kayaking a lot,

00:17:10.058 --> 00:17:13.598
and I knew that my self-rescue, my role, and all these things were pretty good.

00:17:13.758 --> 00:17:15.718
And, you know, landing on beaches is fine.

00:17:16.978 --> 00:17:20.838
Yeah. So, are you solo on most of your trips?

00:17:21.478 --> 00:17:26.558
In many. Not most of them, but in many, yeah. I think all the bigger trips were solo trips.

00:17:27.458 --> 00:17:32.798
You know, it increases the intensity, and it lets me experience that adventure differently.

00:17:33.098 --> 00:17:36.538
So, moving into your other multimodal trips, Big Sur. big

00:17:36.538 --> 00:17:39.538
sur came after i did a long

00:17:39.538 --> 00:17:43.038
trip to alaska which is not technically multimodal

00:17:43.038 --> 00:17:45.798
except that i could take the ferry back you know which i feel

00:17:45.798 --> 00:17:49.198
counts as not being shuttles but then

00:17:49.198 --> 00:17:52.598
i had come back from that trip and then

00:17:52.598 --> 00:17:55.738
i really felt i want to do local trips that

00:17:55.738 --> 00:17:58.438
you know don't require much shuttling and there were a

00:17:58.438 --> 00:18:03.738
few trips like that so one was big sur and the other one was point which is

00:18:03.738 --> 00:18:08.438
another area in california it's like a point that sticks out and you know you

00:18:08.438 --> 00:18:11.278
could you could drive around which takes a lot of time or you could just take

00:18:11.278 --> 00:18:15.518
the bike back so after finishing big sur you decided then to go to alaska and

00:18:15.518 --> 00:18:17.038
do the inside passage is that correct,

00:18:17.798 --> 00:18:26.038
let's hear about that that was in 2023 this idea of doing a big expedition was still with me and.

00:18:26.822 --> 00:18:31.922
Because I was doing many, many bikepacking trips before, I was always thinking,

00:18:32.102 --> 00:18:33.602
what could be this big expedition?

00:18:33.782 --> 00:18:36.202
And I realized it has to be something that's many, many weeks.

00:18:36.382 --> 00:18:42.602
I'm by myself for a lot, and I'm very 100% self-sufficient, as in I might restock

00:18:42.602 --> 00:18:46.062
on food, but I don't want anyone to ship me food or deliver something.

00:18:46.322 --> 00:18:50.742
And someone kind of randomly recommended the Inside Passage to me.

00:18:50.742 --> 00:18:55.062
And when I looked it up, it was pretty much my 100% match because I realized

00:18:55.062 --> 00:18:57.902
I could kayak from Washington where friends of mine live.

00:18:58.082 --> 00:19:01.742
And I could literally kayak all the way up to Skagway and then jump in a ferry.

00:19:02.222 --> 00:19:06.322
Take the ferry back to Bellingham and only do another 30, 40 miles to where my friends live.

00:19:06.622 --> 00:19:12.862
Okay. So that totally fit my overall picture. So that's a big leap from a five-day

00:19:12.862 --> 00:19:15.802
trip moving up to the Inside Passage.

00:19:15.982 --> 00:19:19.522
So tell us a little bit about how you prepared for and planned on that trip.

00:19:19.522 --> 00:19:23.822
So that was back to the spreadsheets. And I guess I really enjoy this part of planning.

00:19:24.222 --> 00:19:28.262
I've met a lot of people who would prefer going with the flow.

00:19:28.362 --> 00:19:32.282
And I guess I really enjoy this sort of preparation where I have the spreadsheet.

00:19:32.282 --> 00:19:33.602
I know exactly where I'm going.

00:19:33.942 --> 00:19:37.522
It also really helped me to understand whether it's possible for me.

00:19:37.642 --> 00:19:39.142
Because you asked me before, how do you know?

00:19:39.262 --> 00:19:43.282
How were you sure that you were ready? And in this case, I had planned a trip

00:19:43.282 --> 00:19:45.182
for, I think my plan was 60 days.

00:19:45.182 --> 00:19:49.122
And I would know for every day approximately how long it would take me how many

00:19:49.122 --> 00:19:54.302
miles I were planning to do and given the amount of paddling I've done before

00:19:54.302 --> 00:19:59.402
I figure that's feasible so there was that and I think they prepared physically

00:19:59.402 --> 00:20:04.922
quite a lot I kayaked about five days for two months five days every week for two months.

00:20:05.721 --> 00:20:11.641
To just get the experience of physical exposure and seeing what my body does

00:20:11.641 --> 00:20:15.261
when I keep doing this for so many days because I wasn't planning on doing many

00:20:15.261 --> 00:20:18.161
rest days just because that's how I enjoy it most.

00:20:18.261 --> 00:20:22.081
I realized the way I like endurance sports is to just keep going.

00:20:22.221 --> 00:20:24.921
That just gives me the biggest, the most joy.

00:20:25.361 --> 00:20:29.721
So in addition to the spreadsheets, what other resources did you use to help

00:20:29.721 --> 00:20:33.101
you figure out what that route was going to look like, what your campsites were

00:20:33.101 --> 00:20:34.361
going to be, and et cetera?

00:20:34.921 --> 00:20:39.181
Several people have written books about the Inside Passage. So I looked at all these books.

00:20:39.421 --> 00:20:43.841
You know, I copied what I could find in terms of campsites, the BC Trail.

00:20:44.061 --> 00:20:48.761
BC Trails is a wonderful website where you have a lot of information on campsites in British Columbia.

00:20:49.261 --> 00:20:53.701
Yeah. And several people were super helpful, just willingly sharing their campsites

00:20:53.701 --> 00:20:54.601
and information with me.

00:20:54.701 --> 00:20:58.801
So I took all this together in, you know, in a big planning tool to,

00:20:58.801 --> 00:21:01.381
yeah, to craft the route. What were some of those favorite books?

00:21:01.761 --> 00:21:05.861
Susan Conrad's book on the Inside Passage. Was the big inspiration.

00:21:06.561 --> 00:21:09.441
Excellent. Previous guest to the show. Again, in British Columbia,

00:21:09.441 --> 00:21:11.381
there are a couple of books.

00:21:11.541 --> 00:21:16.161
They're probably called something DC Trail Books. Honestly, I forget the details.

00:21:16.461 --> 00:21:20.361
And they have good descriptions about a lot of campsites. And then I'm guessing

00:21:20.361 --> 00:21:23.801
internet resources, Facebook groups, those sorts of things probably helped you out as well.

00:21:24.121 --> 00:21:26.741
Exactly, yeah. And, you know, again, what was wonderful for,

00:21:27.081 --> 00:21:30.741
I did find a few kayakers who had done that or who had done parts of that.

00:21:30.741 --> 00:21:34.601
And I basically cold emailed a lot of people and said, would you be willing

00:21:34.601 --> 00:21:37.101
to share some information? And everyone was extremely helpful.

00:21:37.281 --> 00:21:40.581
Everyone was willing to share their GPS points, et cetera.

00:21:40.801 --> 00:21:44.601
And so I had a lot of calls with people I had never seen before and we just

00:21:44.601 --> 00:21:47.601
chatted about their experiences and what to watch out for.

00:21:49.776 --> 00:21:52.816
So how many days were you on the water for that trip?

00:21:53.116 --> 00:21:59.436
I think I was traveling for 52 days, out of which I think there were 44 kayaking

00:21:59.436 --> 00:22:00.636
days, something like that. Okay.

00:22:01.036 --> 00:22:04.236
All right. And then what were some of your favorite experiences from that trip?

00:22:05.056 --> 00:22:10.276
Once I got back, there were a couple of nights that were just incredibly warm.

00:22:10.716 --> 00:22:15.256
White beaches, white sand beaches, you know, might have been the Caribbean, the way it looked.

00:22:15.256 --> 00:22:18.296
Long days until daylight until 11

00:22:18.296 --> 00:22:21.376
or something at that point and just you know just enjoying

00:22:21.376 --> 00:22:24.176
these islands this weather sitting there at night and

00:22:24.176 --> 00:22:27.116
getting sunburned basically at 10 p.m

00:22:27.116 --> 00:22:29.876
that was wonderful i had a stretch on this trip

00:22:29.876 --> 00:22:33.296
where i didn't see where i didn't see anyone for

00:22:33.296 --> 00:22:36.116
five or six days and with seeing i mean

00:22:36.116 --> 00:22:39.136
not even in the distance i think there was once a sailboat coming

00:22:39.136 --> 00:22:42.016
by far away that was the closest i came to a human in

00:22:42.016 --> 00:22:45.976
five days and that was a very interesting experience you

00:22:45.976 --> 00:22:49.856
know to be to be so alone and to be so self-reliant

00:22:49.856 --> 00:22:52.736
and also to realize how small you are and how you know the world keeps

00:22:52.736 --> 00:22:55.576
moving and what we do doesn't really matter and just

00:22:55.576 --> 00:22:58.656
being part of the larger ecosystem and enjoying it

00:22:58.656 --> 00:23:01.836
was was pretty wonderful now how about some of the wildlife experiences on

00:23:01.836 --> 00:23:04.776
that 52 day journey yeah luckily most of

00:23:04.776 --> 00:23:07.896
the wildlife that i've been scared of i didn't see i you know i

00:23:07.896 --> 00:23:10.836
was lucky to not have any bear encounters even though

00:23:10.836 --> 00:23:13.736
it's black and grizzly bear terrain for the

00:23:13.736 --> 00:23:16.716
most part i've seen prints obviously

00:23:16.716 --> 00:23:22.696
i've seen wolf prints also no wolves directly so that was actually a very good

00:23:22.696 --> 00:23:27.176
thing you know and then the usual you see a bunch of whales humpbacks i believe

00:23:27.176 --> 00:23:31.976
not too many orcas in my case so you always have the sense for their presence

00:23:31.976 --> 00:23:36.016
but you wouldn't directly see them so casual ah you see a bunch of whales.

00:23:37.896 --> 00:23:43.916
I don't tend to see any whales in the Great Lakes area yeah okay being on the

00:23:43.916 --> 00:23:46.396
west coast in California I take this for granted that's true,

00:23:47.258 --> 00:23:49.978
Whales just happen. They're everywhere. Whales just happen. Exactly.

00:23:50.638 --> 00:23:54.498
What I had never really experienced before is the bald eagles.

00:23:54.718 --> 00:23:57.538
The amount of bald eagles I've seen. And I remember the first couple of days

00:23:57.538 --> 00:23:59.578
I was trying to snap pictures of every single one.

00:23:59.698 --> 00:24:03.598
And one night I was sitting on an island and I was like, yeah,

00:24:03.698 --> 00:24:06.498
I can easily see 30 just from where I sit.

00:24:06.638 --> 00:24:08.878
So maybe I can stop taking pictures of every single one.

00:24:09.358 --> 00:24:13.278
And that's interesting that of all the wildlife that you do see,

00:24:13.438 --> 00:24:16.278
that's interesting that bald eagles would be one of the fewer.

00:24:16.698 --> 00:24:19.518
So that's something that I do see here in the Great Lakes quite a bit.

00:24:19.638 --> 00:24:20.798
So I guess we've got that advantage.

00:24:23.318 --> 00:24:27.078
How about people experiences? I know that you had to run in some people once

00:24:27.078 --> 00:24:31.418
in a while, maybe in port, but tell us about the generosity of people. Yeah.

00:24:32.218 --> 00:24:38.078
Maybe to start with, what also attracted me to this expedition was that it seemed

00:24:38.078 --> 00:24:43.158
like this perfect mix of times when I would be by myself and times where I would

00:24:43.158 --> 00:24:45.698
necessarily run into people because I would go into towns.

00:24:45.878 --> 00:24:50.638
And the way the inside passage is, you can basically hit some sort of town every

00:24:50.638 --> 00:24:53.578
five to 10 days, and then in between, you're by yourself.

00:24:53.798 --> 00:24:57.938
And so every five to 10 days, I would get into town, I would meet people,

00:24:58.058 --> 00:24:59.518
I would enjoy hanging out.

00:24:59.518 --> 00:25:02.338
And there were a few people that i met across the way

00:25:02.338 --> 00:25:05.538
over and over again because they did a similar trip one

00:25:05.538 --> 00:25:09.818
person was doing that by sailboat and our path would cross over and over again

00:25:09.818 --> 00:25:13.758
and eventually we'll be even finished together because this person you know

00:25:13.758 --> 00:25:18.738
came out by kayak and did the last stretch with me interesting yeah there was

00:25:18.738 --> 00:25:22.638
another person who ended up kayaking with me for the last two weeks i believe.

00:25:23.510 --> 00:25:28.170
Because he had lost his kayaking peddler, a kayaking friend who wouldn't want to continue.

00:25:28.490 --> 00:25:31.710
So it was way more social than I expected it, quite honestly.

00:25:31.930 --> 00:25:37.030
While it was planned as a solo trip, I think the first 60% were solo and the

00:25:37.030 --> 00:25:41.830
last 40% were quite social with several people.

00:25:42.150 --> 00:25:46.630
So that's an interesting mix. You planned it to be a solo trip,

00:25:46.630 --> 00:25:49.090
yet it turned into a social event almost.

00:25:49.670 --> 00:25:52.630
How did that change things for you? you know

00:25:52.630 --> 00:25:55.470
it was really interesting to observe and experience that because

00:25:55.470 --> 00:25:58.550
it feels very different right like when you go solo your

00:25:58.550 --> 00:26:01.410
solo your margin your margin of error is much much smaller

00:26:01.410 --> 00:26:07.770
right and so typically i try to be done on a solo day much sooner you know i'm

00:26:07.770 --> 00:26:11.110
pretty conservative actually and so when i was paddling with this other person

00:26:11.110 --> 00:26:15.230
we would we had days where we kayak pretty late into the day because we could

00:26:15.230 --> 00:26:20.190
the conditions were good but also being together there was someone felt safer. Okay.

00:26:21.010 --> 00:26:23.790
And obviously, you know, on the other hand, you have to coordinate more.

00:26:23.930 --> 00:26:26.310
You have to figure out how far you wanna go.

00:26:26.830 --> 00:26:30.850
So it was interesting to compare my, you know, my first couple of weeks solo

00:26:30.850 --> 00:26:34.570
time to the second half of the trip that was more social.

00:26:35.790 --> 00:26:40.630
Yeah, when you plan for being alone, you really only have yourself both to rely

00:26:40.630 --> 00:26:45.450
on, but you've also only got yourself that's kind of getting in your way, I guess you might say.

00:26:45.990 --> 00:26:48.570
And now all of a sudden you've got another person with you, and that really

00:26:48.570 --> 00:26:50.050
changes the dynamic to the trip.

00:26:51.010 --> 00:26:55.150
Yeah, it totally does. And, you know, there were moments when I was like,

00:26:55.230 --> 00:26:59.710
do I really want to do this trip with someone just because it was planned as a solo trip?

00:26:59.710 --> 00:27:03.750
But on the other hand, the experience and seeing this side by side,

00:27:03.750 --> 00:27:07.010
how I feel in that situation with someone and without someone,

00:27:07.350 --> 00:27:09.950
I think that was, at the very least, that was worth having that.

00:27:10.190 --> 00:27:11.390
Such a stark difference.

00:27:11.890 --> 00:27:15.470
So you mentioned that you're able to see a town every five to seven days.

00:27:15.650 --> 00:27:17.570
So basically, this is one long

00:27:17.570 --> 00:27:21.970
trip, all broken up into several smaller expeditions in between towns.

00:27:22.430 --> 00:27:25.390
You could say that, yeah. I think that's very true. And, you know,

00:27:25.510 --> 00:27:28.670
if there's a town, there's also help if something goes wrong.

00:27:29.150 --> 00:27:32.550
In many places along the inside passage, you could just say like,

00:27:32.630 --> 00:27:36.210
I'm done. I'm just going to take the ferry home. So that makes it all relatively easy.

00:27:36.750 --> 00:27:39.730
All right. Were there any times when you thought, I'm done, I'm going to take the ferry home?

00:27:40.450 --> 00:27:44.350
Yeah, on day two. On day two? Tell us about that.

00:27:45.395 --> 00:27:46.935
Day one was wonderful. It was the

00:27:46.935 --> 00:27:50.435
perfect start. I caught the current well leaving from my friend's place.

00:27:50.775 --> 00:27:54.475
And day two was, it was just warm, way too warm.

00:27:54.555 --> 00:27:58.695
I'm finding a challenge to kayak in that area because the water is very cold

00:27:58.695 --> 00:28:02.375
and the air can be really warm. I think we had 90 degrees.

00:28:02.775 --> 00:28:06.535
So you can't really dress well for immersion. And I remember ending up,

00:28:06.635 --> 00:28:10.715
I pulled onto a rock that was just peeking out of the water and I just took

00:28:10.715 --> 00:28:15.975
off most of my gear because it was just sweating. And I don't know,

00:28:16.155 --> 00:28:17.675
somehow I could not read the currents.

00:28:17.715 --> 00:28:22.575
And so I was constantly going against the stream and it was just a gigantic slog.

00:28:22.995 --> 00:28:26.755
You know, I was thinking to myself, is that what I'm going to do the next two

00:28:26.755 --> 00:28:29.975
months? That's terrible. And luckily, that was just this one day.

00:28:30.355 --> 00:28:33.515
Well, good. Glad you kept going on the day three. What else?

00:28:33.595 --> 00:28:34.515
What did you learn on the trip?

00:28:34.815 --> 00:28:40.375
I learned that I'm really enjoying not seeing people for a while.

00:28:41.295 --> 00:28:46.975
Honestly, I did not think that I would do well in this complete setting of being

00:28:46.975 --> 00:28:49.235
alone out there. I had never done that before.

00:28:49.455 --> 00:28:54.115
I've done a lot of trips by myself, but you would usually meet people.

00:28:54.715 --> 00:29:00.815
And so that was a huge learning, and I really wasn't sure how I would feel with that, and I was fine.

00:29:01.824 --> 00:29:05.864
I also learned to, I really became friends with the forests,

00:29:06.084 --> 00:29:09.764
which I feel you have to when you do something like the inside passage,

00:29:09.764 --> 00:29:13.564
because the tidal ranges are so high that if you want to sleep on a beach,

00:29:13.724 --> 00:29:15.644
you're really running the risk of being flooded at night.

00:29:16.404 --> 00:29:21.584
And somehow in my life, I've always been kind of not happy to sleep in a forest

00:29:21.584 --> 00:29:23.824
or to camp in a forest that never felt appealing.

00:29:23.824 --> 00:29:27.804
And yeah, that totally changed my perspective. And I really fell in love with

00:29:27.804 --> 00:29:33.384
sleeping in the middle of a forest, you know, on a mossy ground and just really enjoy that.

00:29:33.904 --> 00:29:38.224
In terms of kit, what did you bring with you? I mean, the usual expedition gear,

00:29:38.504 --> 00:29:41.844
you know, I like navigating with the GPS.

00:29:42.164 --> 00:29:48.224
I dropped the maps. I had some paper maps for backup, but mostly I went by my GPS.

00:29:48.784 --> 00:29:51.664
You know the usual one set of gear that you're

00:29:51.664 --> 00:29:54.564
wearing and one set of one one dry set

00:29:54.564 --> 00:29:57.544
of gear and then maybe some extra shorts

00:29:57.544 --> 00:30:00.584
a tent a tarp and food

00:30:00.584 --> 00:30:03.404
for 10 to 15 days all right any uh any

00:30:03.404 --> 00:30:06.184
any luxury items that kind of one thing that you're like i

00:30:06.184 --> 00:30:09.944
i don't need this but i really want to have it you know

00:30:09.944 --> 00:30:12.684
i really enjoy eating chocolate and in my

00:30:12.684 --> 00:30:15.404
preparation for the trip i also try to figure

00:30:15.404 --> 00:30:18.124
out what can i eat continuously that i

00:30:18.124 --> 00:30:21.124
can also easily restock without you know just without getting sick

00:30:21.124 --> 00:30:24.424
of it and i realized chocolate it is for me and so

00:30:24.424 --> 00:30:29.464
i had this luxury item of at least one bar of chocolate every day yeah one bar

00:30:29.464 --> 00:30:33.304
of chocolate and a cup of coffee that was yeah that that was what i usually

00:30:33.304 --> 00:30:37.464
did at night once i finished kayaking before dinner and how long would you paddle

00:30:37.464 --> 00:30:42.004
out for an average day i mean that really depends i would say there were a few

00:30:42.084 --> 00:30:44.044
Most days only where I did less than 20 miles,

00:30:44.184 --> 00:30:47.544
most days between 20 and 30 miles, 20, 25 miles.

00:30:47.744 --> 00:30:52.564
And so that brings it to maybe six to nine hours. And you've got a lot of daylight

00:30:52.564 --> 00:30:55.464
time of that time of year, right? Yeah, exactly.

00:30:56.864 --> 00:30:59.044
What didn't go well other than day two?

00:31:01.304 --> 00:31:04.604
What didn't go well you know not no

00:31:04.604 --> 00:31:08.144
not much actually actually everything worked very

00:31:08.144 --> 00:31:10.944
well you know i have a minor thing where

00:31:10.944 --> 00:31:15.744
on day on the second to last day something broke on my kayak that could have

00:31:15.744 --> 00:31:19.224
broken earlier that would have been annoying but that really only happened very

00:31:19.224 --> 00:31:23.264
much at the end well that's good that's good planning then yeah yeah i can't

00:31:23.264 --> 00:31:26.344
really come up with something that didn't go well i think you know honestly

00:31:26.344 --> 00:31:29.644
i think i had a little bit not enough food sometimes.

00:31:30.284 --> 00:31:34.584
I remember one day, and that brings me back to my fog experiences,

00:31:34.584 --> 00:31:39.404
I was planning to finish that one the next day to get into Prince Rupert.

00:31:40.024 --> 00:31:44.644
And I was camped on a little island, basically just across the channel from Prince Rupert.

00:31:45.024 --> 00:31:49.004
And this being the major shipping channel, when I woke up the next morning,

00:31:49.164 --> 00:31:50.304
it was completely foggy.

00:31:50.544 --> 00:31:54.244
Foggy to an extent that I just didn't dare to cross a shipping channel because

00:31:54.244 --> 00:31:56.944
I couldn't see anything. And I knew ships would not see me.

00:31:57.684 --> 00:32:02.084
So I had to hang out a day, you know, and I had already planned for that to

00:32:02.084 --> 00:32:05.184
be my last day and for like the big meal at night in Prince Rupert.

00:32:05.644 --> 00:32:08.544
From that, I definitely took a little bit more food, a little bit more extra

00:32:08.544 --> 00:32:09.384
food would be a good idea.

00:32:09.664 --> 00:32:13.764
Now, did you did you prepackage and ship food to different locations or did

00:32:13.764 --> 00:32:15.024
you just purchase food in towns?

00:32:15.624 --> 00:32:21.004
I purchased food, whatever I could in town. OK, what was the one food item that

00:32:21.004 --> 00:32:22.564
you were craving when you got to a town?

00:32:22.764 --> 00:32:25.504
I mean, I guess, you know, a burger, something.

00:32:25.744 --> 00:32:29.624
Yeah, a burger and a beer. And then I would usually just order the second one right after.

00:32:31.748 --> 00:32:35.208
Two in a row. Yeah, that turned out to be a pretty good recipe, honestly.

00:32:35.968 --> 00:32:40.408
Yeah, I've had folks that we've talked about, I ate a whole chocolate cake in one sitting.

00:32:41.368 --> 00:32:44.348
Just interesting things like that. When you're burning that many calories over

00:32:44.348 --> 00:32:47.588
that period of time, eat it, have fun, enjoy it.

00:32:48.208 --> 00:32:51.948
Exactly. But you know, for me, again, bringing so much chocolate and eating

00:32:51.948 --> 00:32:54.908
it was really, that did a lot of the tricks for me.

00:32:55.128 --> 00:32:59.208
Because every day there was something in terms of food to really look forward to.

00:32:59.288 --> 00:33:02.168
And I didn't mind, you know, and everything else is pretty monotonous what

00:33:02.168 --> 00:33:05.568
you're eating yeah and the chocolate and the coffee at night just just

00:33:05.568 --> 00:33:08.488
made my day having done a number of trips myself there's

00:33:08.488 --> 00:33:11.568
always seems to be one campsite that just sticks out

00:33:11.568 --> 00:33:14.608
in your mind as just being the campsite what's

00:33:14.608 --> 00:33:17.368
that one for you that you experienced on that trip that you just

00:33:17.368 --> 00:33:20.148
remember most there was one campsite i i

00:33:20.148 --> 00:33:22.868
would have to look it up what what its name was honestly but that

00:33:22.868 --> 00:33:26.228
was on the i did a little stretch on the outside passage before

00:33:26.228 --> 00:33:29.528
getting to Bella Bella and that was

00:33:29.528 --> 00:33:32.908
a wild ride to get there and I left very early

00:33:32.908 --> 00:33:36.048
in the morning because I could see a storm coming at

00:33:36.048 --> 00:33:42.208
11 a.m and I made it to that island at 10 a.m and I was not a minute too late

00:33:42.208 --> 00:33:47.828
and I remember at some point I was sitting at the northern side of this island

00:33:47.828 --> 00:33:52.008
and the oh yeah it was a southerly weather system so you know the waves were

00:33:52.008 --> 00:33:55.288
crashing onto this island from the south, I was sitting on the northern side,

00:33:55.488 --> 00:33:57.988
and I had my usual coffee and chocolate,

00:33:58.248 --> 00:34:02.628
and the rain was starting to come down, and I would just lay down in my tent,

00:34:02.668 --> 00:34:07.868
which was in the forest on mossy ground, and I could just feel the weather around

00:34:07.868 --> 00:34:11.668
me, and I was safe in my little tent. You were talking about the shipping channels earlier.

00:34:11.968 --> 00:34:16.208
Not having done the inside passage, I'm trying to think of what that would be like. It is that.

00:34:17.084 --> 00:34:20.844
Can you see land most of the time? Are you never more than a couple miles from

00:34:20.844 --> 00:34:22.424
land? Or what are you dealing with?

00:34:23.644 --> 00:34:27.084
Yeah. So there is a lot of, I mean, you know, it's a long stretch.

00:34:27.244 --> 00:34:30.244
It's a total of, what was it, 1,300 miles.

00:34:30.464 --> 00:34:32.604
So obviously that changes quite a lot.

00:34:32.844 --> 00:34:37.244
In some places you are in channels that have a lot of current you need to deal with.

00:34:37.464 --> 00:34:41.504
I try to avoid the larger channels just because that is where the ferries would

00:34:41.504 --> 00:34:45.404
go and the channels are really wide. And I don't think I find that too appealing.

00:34:45.404 --> 00:34:49.924
But yeah, besides that, you see land many times. You're pretty close to land.

00:34:50.824 --> 00:34:55.484
What I found the most rewarding part of the inside passage was though,

00:34:55.664 --> 00:34:58.664
where it wasn't the inside passage, but more like the outside passage.

00:34:58.944 --> 00:35:03.024
So when you, you know, the inside passage is named like such because it's tucked

00:35:03.024 --> 00:35:06.324
in and you're not really exposed to the main ocean swell.

00:35:06.944 --> 00:35:10.924
But there are a few options to basically hop over to the left,

00:35:11.024 --> 00:35:13.144
to the west, and be a little bit further outside.

00:35:13.564 --> 00:35:17.044
And you get definitely more ocean swell and it really feels more like ocean

00:35:17.044 --> 00:35:21.344
and sea kayaking. And every time I did that, I enjoyed that more, I realized.

00:35:21.664 --> 00:35:24.404
We'll talk a little bit about outside here in just a minute because that gave

00:35:24.404 --> 00:35:27.364
you a taste of the outside and you took a different trip.

00:35:27.504 --> 00:35:30.104
But one last question as we kind of transition from there.

00:35:30.821 --> 00:35:35.121
You reached Skagway and now you're taking the ferry back. What was that ferry experience like?

00:35:35.481 --> 00:35:40.161
Yeah, that was wonderful. So I got to Skagway with a person that I had paddled

00:35:40.161 --> 00:35:41.681
with together the last couple of days.

00:35:41.941 --> 00:35:46.441
And on the ferry, you can actually pitch your tent onto, like,

00:35:46.441 --> 00:35:50.881
you can pay for a cabin, which we didn't want to do, or you can pitch your tent on deck.

00:35:51.221 --> 00:35:55.821
And you can literally glue on your ferry with, like, gorilla tape onto the deck.

00:35:55.941 --> 00:35:59.541
That was quite amazing to, you know, not finish the whole camping experience.

00:35:59.541 --> 00:36:03.381
But this way, the whole ferry experience became part of the overall expedition.

00:36:03.641 --> 00:36:07.701
Yeah, you just, you basically see everything backwards. The last section of

00:36:07.701 --> 00:36:13.301
the inside passage is called the Lynn Canal between Skagway and Juno going backwards.

00:36:13.561 --> 00:36:20.221
And that was fascinating, seeing this reverse and just realizing what I had just done.

00:36:20.461 --> 00:36:23.581
All from your tent city on the deck of the ferry.

00:36:24.441 --> 00:36:29.101
All right. Now, how many other people are tenting out on the ferry?

00:36:29.541 --> 00:36:32.841
There were a bunch there were maybe 10 and now

00:36:32.841 --> 00:36:35.581
how long is the ferry ride back the ferry takes three and

00:36:35.581 --> 00:36:39.361
a half days okay it takes quite a while yeah so 49

00:36:39.361 --> 00:36:42.061
ish days to go to to take

00:36:42.061 --> 00:36:45.601
the trip north and then three and a half days to take it back basically

00:36:45.601 --> 00:36:48.601
52 up and three and a half back yep but the wonderful thing

00:36:48.601 --> 00:36:52.221
especially after you know so much time eating

00:36:52.221 --> 00:36:55.581
whatever you have in your kayak this ferry had a little cafeteria and

00:36:55.581 --> 00:36:59.281
while i'm pretty sure it's not the most gourmet food but

00:36:59.281 --> 00:37:02.081
after a trip like that it's obviously wonderful to have food so

00:37:02.081 --> 00:37:05.141
accessible yeah absolutely so as

00:37:05.141 --> 00:37:09.721
i'd mentioned you you as you'd mentioned you took a few trips kind of outside

00:37:09.721 --> 00:37:13.341
so you went out outside of the channels and you kind of experienced the swell

00:37:13.341 --> 00:37:18.221
and that gave you a taste of of the outside as you'd mentioned so you then went

00:37:18.221 --> 00:37:23.321
to vancouver island and did the the outside coast of vancouver island the pacific coast yeah.

00:37:24.286 --> 00:37:27.826
And that was exactly the motivation, because I had seen part of the inside passage

00:37:27.826 --> 00:37:32.306
from the outside that I felt I really need to do this outside portion of Vancouver Island. Okay.

00:37:32.966 --> 00:37:35.786
Experience what that is like. So walk us through Vancouver Island.

00:37:35.926 --> 00:37:40.666
I mean, this is going back to a true multimodal. I mean, I suppose Alaska was

00:37:40.666 --> 00:37:42.946
multimodal, as you had mentioned, because you took the ferry back.

00:37:43.066 --> 00:37:47.266
But in this case, you're paddling and biking. So tell us a little bit about Vancouver Island.

00:37:47.826 --> 00:37:55.106
Yeah. So that was really my big plan to, in quotes, conquer this island completely human powered.

00:37:55.326 --> 00:37:58.986
And so on this trip along the Inside Passage the year before,

00:37:59.266 --> 00:38:03.546
how it goes is that from Port Hardy, which sits at the northwestern part of

00:38:03.546 --> 00:38:07.946
Vancouver Island, if you look at that, the Inside Passage would basically go

00:38:07.946 --> 00:38:09.006
straight up north from there.

00:38:09.146 --> 00:38:13.746
And what I hadn't seen is the southern and western part of Vancouver Island.

00:38:13.746 --> 00:38:19.686
And so I drove myself to Port Hardy, left my car there, and basically started

00:38:19.686 --> 00:38:22.166
kayaking around counterclockwise.

00:38:22.466 --> 00:38:27.106
And it's rugged, it's wild, and it's remote. And it's exactly what I was looking for.

00:38:27.266 --> 00:38:30.106
And you feel that immediately the moment you leave Port Hardy,

00:38:30.206 --> 00:38:31.646
you can feel exactly that.

00:38:33.009 --> 00:38:36.309
As soon as you're like a few miles out, there aren't many fisher boats,

00:38:36.649 --> 00:38:37.709
there isn't really much happening.

00:38:38.249 --> 00:38:41.809
So what was that experience like going on the outside of Vancouver Island?

00:38:42.529 --> 00:38:46.889
It felt like meeting an old friend, right? Because a year before I had been

00:38:46.889 --> 00:38:50.029
going north from there and now I was going, you know, southwest.

00:38:50.429 --> 00:38:54.569
So in some ways it felt like meeting an old friend, but also the amount of unknown

00:38:54.569 --> 00:38:58.349
was higher because again, that is an area that gets a lot of fog,

00:38:58.389 --> 00:39:01.149
you know, but at that point I was just, I was just fine with it.

00:39:01.149 --> 00:39:04.049
So just tidal along interestingly there are

00:39:04.049 --> 00:39:06.789
i met way more people on this trip than on

00:39:06.789 --> 00:39:10.189
any of my other of my other kayaking trips before almost every

00:39:10.189 --> 00:39:13.849
night i would sleep at a campsite where there were other people so i barely

00:39:13.849 --> 00:39:18.329
saw anyone on the water but i always almost always met someone at camp which

00:39:18.329 --> 00:39:22.089
was actually a wonderful combination of having you know solitude during the

00:39:22.089 --> 00:39:26.809
day and then some social life at night in in various forms interesting now i

00:39:26.809 --> 00:39:29.889
wonder why it was that you found that dynamic.

00:39:30.369 --> 00:39:34.769
Why that happened? Yeah. I think Vancouver Island is just more of a destination.

00:39:34.989 --> 00:39:36.609
You know, there are multiple hiking trails.

00:39:37.870 --> 00:39:42.710
And some of the kayaking camps are also hiking camps. Okay. So those folks that

00:39:42.710 --> 00:39:44.570
you saw in camp, they weren't all paddlers.

00:39:44.850 --> 00:39:48.490
It could have been hikers or whatnot as well. Okay. That's right. Yeah.

00:39:49.510 --> 00:39:53.670
I think barely anyone does the whole circumnavigation or that whole stretch.

00:39:53.830 --> 00:39:57.190
But then there is lots of hiking, lots of local kayaking also.

00:39:57.730 --> 00:40:01.290
And how long was the paddle portion of that trip? What was that?

00:40:01.330 --> 00:40:08.010
I think it was 15 days. I was really pushing that mostly because I felt like I wanted to push that.

00:40:08.350 --> 00:40:12.770
There wasn't any better reason than being just motivated to run through it.

00:40:12.970 --> 00:40:14.270
And how about weather on that trip?

00:40:14.990 --> 00:40:16.370
There were multiple days when I

00:40:16.370 --> 00:40:19.670
was running away from the weather or just trying to get ahead of weather.

00:40:19.870 --> 00:40:23.790
You know, there's several points that you really need to get around.

00:40:23.970 --> 00:40:26.470
There's Cape Scouts in the north, Brooks Island.

00:40:26.970 --> 00:40:29.590
And every time you want to get around, you really need to make sure that the

00:40:29.590 --> 00:40:33.750
weather works out. and I would usually look a few days ahead and I could see something's coming.

00:40:34.030 --> 00:40:36.290
So I would, you know, try to push a little more to get around.

00:40:36.530 --> 00:40:41.010
That all worked out wonderfully so that I had one forced rest day,

00:40:41.250 --> 00:40:44.390
which I happened to have at this one hot spring that there is.

00:40:44.530 --> 00:40:49.230
So that worked out so perfectly that I could literally land at the hot spring,

00:40:49.750 --> 00:40:53.970
enjoy rest day in the hot spring while it was really downpouring.

00:40:54.630 --> 00:40:58.830
Sounds beautiful. So what weather resources were you using?

00:40:58.830 --> 00:41:02.670
I do the usual that i have a friend send me updates like a friend who knows

00:41:02.670 --> 00:41:05.910
me very well and who would you know who would read the weather forecast to me

00:41:05.910 --> 00:41:07.730
and send me the relevant parts.

00:41:08.590 --> 00:41:12.990
I was using my in reach a lot for you know getting local weather updates and

00:41:12.990 --> 00:41:16.450
it's actually working pretty well the weather you get on your in reach and then

00:41:16.450 --> 00:41:22.350
i was constantly listening to that just to the weather on the radio and um that

00:41:22.350 --> 00:41:25.870
being canada you get a decent amount of french And so there were days when I

00:41:25.870 --> 00:41:27.530
was just listening to the radio,

00:41:27.750 --> 00:41:32.850
you know, and at some point you, the way it sounds, it really creeps deep into your brain.

00:41:32.850 --> 00:41:36.730
And I can never forget how they would, you know, how they would say so many

00:41:36.730 --> 00:41:41.150
feet swells and see so many feet, et cetera. And it's just repetitive. And,

00:41:42.786 --> 00:41:47.266
Something that grew dear to me to just listen to that and get a sense for what's coming.

00:41:48.106 --> 00:41:50.506
And then when you finished that, so where did you finish the paddling part?

00:41:51.126 --> 00:41:54.846
So the paddling went all the way to Victoria. All right. And then you picked up your bike?

00:41:55.786 --> 00:41:59.006
Exactly. So Victoria is on the southern part of Vancouver Island.

00:41:59.006 --> 00:42:03.026
And I had found someone who was willing to stash my bike and then later on stash

00:42:03.026 --> 00:42:04.526
my kayak. So I just swapped that.

00:42:04.986 --> 00:42:09.166
And from there, I jumped on the bike. And I think it was 450-ish miles kayaking

00:42:09.166 --> 00:42:13.446
and then pretty much the same distance by bike through the inside of the island.

00:42:14.006 --> 00:42:19.006
Now, what was that experience like? That was way more populated than I thought, honestly.

00:42:19.246 --> 00:42:22.486
That was actually really interesting to see how, you know, the larger area of

00:42:22.486 --> 00:42:26.546
Victoria is pretty populated. And it's really hard to get away from people, honestly.

00:42:26.766 --> 00:42:30.106
And then at some point you get into all the forests.

00:42:30.466 --> 00:42:33.686
There's a lot of logging, you know. That was also really interesting to see

00:42:33.686 --> 00:42:38.706
when you are in a kayak. you do have the advantage to see some of the old forests

00:42:38.706 --> 00:42:40.626
that are still there or that are too hard to log.

00:42:40.806 --> 00:42:44.286
But as soon as you go inside, you're really dealing with a lot of logging.

00:42:44.406 --> 00:42:47.486
And it's in part really sad to see what we've been doing to the forests.

00:42:48.313 --> 00:42:52.993
Yeah, it's a vastly different experience on the bike than it was on the boat. It is so different.

00:42:53.173 --> 00:42:55.753
Yeah, and it's so interesting to see that. And, you know, from the water,

00:42:55.913 --> 00:43:00.733
you sometimes could see logging activities in the distance, but not so much.

00:43:00.973 --> 00:43:04.153
But when you're on land, you're really forced to look at that.

00:43:04.433 --> 00:43:06.573
Now, did you find that disappointing or just different?

00:43:06.873 --> 00:43:09.453
I found it disappointing in parts, honestly. I found it sad.

00:43:10.073 --> 00:43:14.313
And honestly, had I not kayaked, I probably wouldn't know what we've been losing

00:43:14.313 --> 00:43:17.573
there, right? because as a kayaker, you get into those little nooks where there's

00:43:17.573 --> 00:43:19.633
still all these big old-growth trees.

00:43:19.933 --> 00:43:23.193
And if you're only on land, you don't even know what would be there.

00:43:23.513 --> 00:43:26.013
So what's next for you? That's a good question.

00:43:26.573 --> 00:43:31.453
Honestly, at this point, I've probably done most of the trips that were immediately on my list.

00:43:31.733 --> 00:43:34.933
I'd be very interested to kayak in New Zealand at some point,

00:43:35.053 --> 00:43:38.413
but that is a larger trip and probably requires a little bit more planning.

00:43:38.773 --> 00:43:44.273
But until then, I would like to do some more local bike and kayak activities

00:43:44.273 --> 00:43:48.593
that don't require too much overall planning and too much time commitment.

00:43:48.833 --> 00:43:51.433
Well, I know when we talked, you said you were a big listener to the show.

00:43:51.533 --> 00:43:55.433
So hopefully you'll get a chance to listen to some episodes and think that's the next trip for me.

00:43:57.531 --> 00:44:01.091
What advice can you offer to other listeners considering a multimodal trip?

00:44:01.731 --> 00:44:06.831
I'm personally a fan who likes to be physically pretty well prepared.

00:44:06.951 --> 00:44:10.971
And I think that's helpful for confidence if you just know your physical limits,

00:44:11.191 --> 00:44:14.991
you know, and then once you go into this into biking and kayaking,

00:44:15.271 --> 00:44:19.411
then you'll I mean, you'll hit the situation that you're not fit enough for

00:44:19.411 --> 00:44:23.731
either or like you're not ideally trained because you've just been kayaking for three weeks.

00:44:23.731 --> 00:44:27.051
But I think in general being well

00:44:27.051 --> 00:44:30.611
prepared physically is a good idea so you don't run into an injury you

00:44:30.611 --> 00:44:33.771
know and then as much as it sounds like you are

00:44:33.771 --> 00:44:38.451
completely in charge of what's happening I feel this these multimodal trips

00:44:38.451 --> 00:44:42.031
have a little bit of a requirement that you find locals who are willing to support

00:44:42.031 --> 00:44:47.411
you right and that is someone needs to store your kayak maybe or your bike and

00:44:47.411 --> 00:44:52.411
honestly it's been it's been wonderful to see how how many people were excited to help,

00:44:52.971 --> 00:44:56.411
I've heard from people that I didn't know before whom I would just ask and they'd

00:44:56.411 --> 00:44:59.291
be like, yeah, I'm so happy to support this adventure in some ways.

00:44:59.831 --> 00:45:02.671
That's fantastic. Again, it goes back to the goodness of people and how they

00:45:02.671 --> 00:45:04.391
want to help make a difference for you.

00:45:04.951 --> 00:45:07.791
Definitely. Good. How can listeners connect with you, Kent?

00:45:08.091 --> 00:45:12.691
I'm not on social media, but I have a blog that you can reach me through there,

00:45:12.951 --> 00:45:16.991
blog.grumpycat.xyz and it's grumpycat with a K.

00:45:17.451 --> 00:45:20.211
All right. Well, we'll make sure we put that in the show notes so folks can

00:45:20.211 --> 00:45:24.171
check out the write-ups and the fantastic photos that you have of your trips.

00:45:24.291 --> 00:45:25.251
You take excellent photos.

00:45:25.691 --> 00:45:28.971
Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, and, you know, I wanted to say if people do

00:45:28.971 --> 00:45:34.071
plan a trip and want advice or, you know, would like to just chat through,

00:45:34.091 --> 00:45:35.291
like, an idea that they have,

00:45:35.471 --> 00:45:38.811
I'd be very happy to help there because, again, that's something that has helped

00:45:38.811 --> 00:45:41.631
me a lot, other people being willing to share whatever they could share.

00:45:42.031 --> 00:45:45.251
Super. Well, speaking of other people, I've got one final question for you,

00:45:45.291 --> 00:45:48.611
and that is who else would you like to hear as a future guest on Paddling the Blue?

00:45:49.457 --> 00:45:53.937
Yeah, there is a big adventurer named Lorenzo Baroni, if I'm pronouncing that

00:45:53.937 --> 00:45:55.857
correctly, who is currently,

00:45:56.097 --> 00:45:58.937
from what I understand, because I've only been following his social media,

00:45:59.097 --> 00:46:05.817
preparing to do a truly multimodal trip through Africa by bike and then crossing

00:46:05.817 --> 00:46:12.437
the Atlantic by rowing boat and then crossing Southern America by all sorts of other modalities.

00:46:12.717 --> 00:46:17.837
So if you can get a hand on this person, I think he's leaving to his trip later this month.

00:46:17.837 --> 00:46:20.857
So if we can get a hand on this person that would be wonderful okay now

00:46:20.857 --> 00:46:23.757
once he crosses south america will he continue paddling

00:46:23.757 --> 00:46:26.857
and looking to make that a worldwide trip that is

00:46:26.857 --> 00:46:29.837
a good question so far i haven't seen that on his trip map but maybe you can recommend

00:46:29.837 --> 00:46:34.697
that all right we'll do that ketrin this has been wonderful i've had great great

00:46:34.697 --> 00:46:38.137
having a chance to talk to you and being able to hear about your trips and how

00:46:38.137 --> 00:46:42.077
you've woven biking and paddling together and so i really appreciate hearing

00:46:42.077 --> 00:46:45.357
from your experience and i'm certain that listeners will reach out to you as

00:46:45.357 --> 00:46:48.357
well and look for ways to be able to improve their experiences.

00:46:48.777 --> 00:46:50.557
Thank you, John, for having me. Thank you.

00:46:52.221 --> 00:46:55.721
If you want to be a stronger and more efficient paddler, Power to the Paddle

00:46:55.721 --> 00:46:59.361
is packed with fitness guidance and complete descriptions along with photos

00:46:59.361 --> 00:47:03.781
of more than 50 exercises to improve your abilities and enjoy your time on the water.

00:47:03.981 --> 00:47:07.801
The concept and exercises in this book have helped me become a better paddler

00:47:07.801 --> 00:47:09.441
and they can make a difference for you too.

00:47:09.721 --> 00:47:13.381
The exercises in the book can help you reduce tension in your shoulders and

00:47:13.381 --> 00:47:17.981
low back, use the power of your torso to create leverage and use less energy with each stroke,

00:47:18.201 --> 00:47:21.681
use force generated from your lower body to make your paddling strokes more

00:47:21.681 --> 00:47:24.741
efficient, Have the endurance to handle long days in the boat,

00:47:24.981 --> 00:47:26.921
drive through the toughest waves or whitewater,

00:47:27.221 --> 00:47:30.381
protect your body against common paddling injuries, and while you're at it,

00:47:30.521 --> 00:47:31.821
you might even lose a few pounds.

00:47:31.981 --> 00:47:37.121
And who wouldn't mind that? So visit paddlingexercises.com to get the book and companion DVD.

00:47:38.041 --> 00:47:41.481
Thanks to Katrin for sharing her mostly solo experiences with us.

00:47:41.701 --> 00:47:44.881
She learned quite a bit and has taken on some really interesting trips in her

00:47:44.881 --> 00:47:46.361
relatively short experience.

00:47:46.621 --> 00:47:50.621
In addition to extensive climbing, she's done some really interesting bikepacking

00:47:50.621 --> 00:47:53.541
to remote corners of the world that you can find at her website.

00:47:53.781 --> 00:47:57.981
You'll find her stories as well as some of her planning resources for her trips,

00:47:58.161 --> 00:48:02.021
including her detailed spreadsheet and her blog by visiting the show notes for

00:48:02.021 --> 00:48:05.881
this episode at paddlingtheblue.com slash 154.

00:48:06.221 --> 00:48:09.921
And reminder, if you're not already a subscriber to onlineseekhiking.com or

00:48:09.921 --> 00:48:15.541
onlinewhitewater.com, remember that you can visit onlineseekhiking.com or onlinewhitewater.com.

00:48:15.541 --> 00:48:20.401
Use the coupon code PTBpodcast at checkout and you'll get 10% off just for being

00:48:20.401 --> 00:48:21.901
a member of the Paddling Blue community.

00:48:22.421 --> 00:48:25.681
And as always, thanks again for listening. I look forward to bringing you the

00:48:25.681 --> 00:48:27.741
next episode of Paddling the Blue.

00:48:29.400 --> 00:48:32.620
Thank you for listening to Paddling the Blue. You can subscribe to Paddling

00:48:32.620 --> 00:48:37.940
the Blue on Apple Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

00:48:38.140 --> 00:48:41.080
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00:48:41.080 --> 00:48:42.940
We truly appreciate the support.

00:48:43.160 --> 00:48:46.380
And you can find the show notes for this episode and other episodes,

00:48:46.580 --> 00:48:52.120
along with replays of past episodes, contact information, and more at paddlingtheblue.com.

00:48:52.340 --> 00:48:55.420
Until next time, I hope you get out and paddle the blue.