I don’t know jack about train watching except that sometimes you can get a pretty good view of certain railways while sitting on the water in a kayak. There are many situations where a kayaks allows you unobstructed and/or uncrowded views of certain subjects of interest, and this includes the massively powerful trains that run [...]

Seeing a whale while kayaking is an extra special treat. But unless you are very knowledgeable, you are likely to be disappointed if your only purpose for heading out in your kayak for the day is to see whales. While whale watching tours almost always find whales, they also have much faster boats and communicate [...]

Someone at a kayak shop tipped me off years ago that any street in Seattle that ends at water can be used for public access. This is good to know if you are inclined to explore the billions of bodies of water in the Seattle area. Seattle is such a fun town, and I always [...]

Man, do they stink. I don’t always get close enough to smell them, but when I do, it’s olfactory hell. These in particular didn’t smell too bad. But the ones at Pillar Point Marina, near Half Moon Bay, were going to kill me with their horrible stench. There is something about rotting fish-breath that makes [...]

Kiliii Dreaming – Ancestral Ways Photography Here’s a photoblog I came across that includes many photos of handmade wooden, skin-on-frame kayaks. The photographer apparently teaches classes about ancestral lifestyles, including survival and hunting and fishing methods. Sometimes I forget how beautiful the Pacific Northwest is, but looking at sites like this reminds me in an [...]

Drake’s Estero is a relatively shallow inlet near the tip of Point Reyes, CA, comprising a number of smaller bays. The launch point is near Johnson’s Oyster Farm (apparently now known as Drake’s Bay Oyster Farm) at the northernmost point of Schooner Bay. I’ve had one of my best kayaking trips ever at Drake’s Estero, [...]

This is a book I’ve had on my reading list for a while now. Here’s a link to it on Amazon: I’ve read excerpts of it in the past and it was pretty interesting. It’s a true story about (and by) doctor Hannes Lindemann who crossed the Atlantic in 1956, completely unassisted, in a Klepper [...]

View Larger Map We launched from Estuary park (bottom right of the above map) at about 11:30AM. From there, we headed towards Jack London Square, in the direction of San Francisco. The put-in at Estuary park was easy, with parking lots right by the water. Not far from Estuary park is Jack London Square. We [...]