Day 6 - New gear and old friends!



   After a quick breakfast and a little gear clean up this morning I was surprised by a phone call from Mrs. Kim Luallen, a former teacher from my elementary school. She recently moved to a town near where I was staying and said she'd be happy to meet up and bring me anything I need! I couldn't resist her offer so after a quick talk we met up and drove over to the local outfitters where I picked up some spare dry bags, a new ground tarp to keep the sand out of my gear, and some my flies for some fishing later on the trip.



We had a short lunch and they dropped me off back at the campsite. Always a pleasure to see some old friends, and I enjoyed talking with her son Zach, who I used to mentor when I was about 11 years old. Thanks again Luallen family!

The rest of the afternoon was spent organizing, re-charging, and a little light studying of my charts and books for the trip. Feeling prepared and excited to cover some ground ( water?) tomorrow!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sailing to Suwannee! 

Image
   Well today was quite the adventure! Shortly after leaving our new friends John and Joni we paddled a couple miles out to a point where we could just see Horseshoe beach off in the distance maybe 12 miles away. The wind was straight on our backs, and I thought about how much I had been wanting to try sailing my kayak... "Hey Harrison, how do you feel about trying sail?" After a quick stop and some paracord/tarp quantum physics rigging we had ourselfs a fully functional catamaran downwind spinnaker!    Our rig was simple. Two corners of a lightweight tarp tied to our decks with the top corners tied to our paddles. The boats tacked together with nothing but  our spare paddles and arms.  The  paddles would act as masts and I figured the whole thing could be quickly taken down in the event we needed to separate and paddle.     We learned and adapted as we went. Every mile that passed by we figured out how to postion ourselves and our lines...
Read more

Bikes Bikes Bikes  

Image
   So currently after paddling roughly 100 miles in the past 3 days I've been holding up in Tallahassee. It's been a great place to wait out the unfavorable weather and for my good friend Harrison to come up and paddle the next big section with me. Right now the trip stands at about 300 miles in two weeks, with around 500 miles left. I'm feeling good and ready to paddle, but as of now I've been pedaling!     Anyone who knows me knows I love bikes and have been working on them since I was kid. I currently have 7 stuffed in my apartment while I'm away. I figured while I was here in Tally I'd check out the local bike community and see if I could get my hands on something to ride around. I got much more than that.     I poked around a few shops and had some good talks but nothing prepared me for where I spent most of my time today. A friend of a friend referred me to Bike House, a local warehouse loaded with bikes, piles of parts, tools, and quite...
Read more

Day 4 - A Little Help From the Smiths

Image
  Today marks my 4th day on the water and about 75 miles paddled total! Things have been fun for sure, and getting settled and working out the kinks in my gear has been interesting. Everyday I get a little faster, and everything develops a rhythm of its own. My route today involved transitioning to the Gulf from the inter coastal. I left from Fort Walton beach and paddled into Destin out the East Pass. The waters were crystal clear, and momentarily I felt I was already in the keys. Guess not. I got my first taste of big waves as I pushed out past the wakes from the many boats passing by and then into the open sea. I'm excited to say that the boat held together great and is still water tight after being knocked around today!         As I neared my destination, Topsail Hill State Park, I had to figure out how to make a landing in the rough surf. I went for the "go as fast as I can and hop out before I hit something" method. Sur...
Read more