Reading time: Too long.

‘It’s always nice to get out on the water.’  Such is the expression. And there has been a lot of water under the bridge, literally and figuratively since my last post which was over a year ago.

This post is an attempt to catch up – highlighting a few adventures in the year that  since that has quietly slipped by…with an emphasis (as usual) on outdoor travels.  I had a bit of a return to backpacking and trail running – but still lots of paddling and a fair bit of sailing. I haven’t covered every outing below, there were some fun kayaking and sailing trips in between the ones below. And, of course, these are all cherry-picked highlights. But who wants to see the rainy or frustrated days?

May, 2024.

In my last post, published in May, 2024,  I wrote about revisiting Marlboro College in Vermont during. What I didn’t write about was the kayak trip I managed to squeeze in before heading back to the PNW.

One reason was that it was confusingly (and unimaginatively) the same route/trip that I had done the prior fall in 2023, leaving from my friend Brett’s house in Saranac Lake and doing an out-n-back to some nearby lakes over the course of a couple nights camping. There didn’t seem a lot of reason to remark on it. At the same time – it was beautiful and unique in its own way. It was only a few days ‘out’, much shorter (and cooler) than the paddle down the Mekong in Cambodia a few months prior,  but enough to find some solitude and balance. Thanks, as always, to Brett for his hospitality, friendship, amazing cooking, and letting me stash this kayak at his house!

August, 2024

Back in the PNW, I felt somewhat obligated, and somewhat interested, in resuming the sailing foray into Canadian waters that I had started in 2023 – but which had quickly gone south when I got a stray rope wrapped around my propellor .

While the custom for many in my neighborhood is to head to Alaska, reaching a suitable turn-around-point on the east side of Vancouver Island seemed like a more attainable goal. So I did my best to ‘throw off my bowlines’  and spent a few weeks meandering my way through the southern Gulf Islands.

Overall it was a good trip and I regained some solo-sailing confidence. There was more boat traffic than I would have liked, and at one point (I blame high winds and a bozo who anchored too close to me) I crashed into another boat while pulling up my anchor, but I’m trying to keep complaints at a minimum in this post. The best part was an impromptu visit by Bryony who took a ferry over from the Canadian mainland to Pender Island for a 24hr adventure exploring trails, birding (see Bryony’s blog which highlights here writing and speaking engagements related to birding culture) and farmer markets.

September, 2024

Later, in the fall, we went on a back-packing trip in the nearby Cascades. I often question how much I still like carrying a heavy load on my back to get into the mountains, but on this trip the payoff was worth it and it was nice to camp above treeline and walk on a glacier – both favorite pastimes, but things I haven’t done in far too long.

We had one of the most surreal sunsets I have ever seen. But the clouds were ominous and the winds built in the night with snow pelting the tent.

I made another visit back to northern NY to help with family and camp repairs. Once again, I squeezed in a kayak trip in the Adirondacks. Instead of launching down the street from my friend Brett’s house, and doing and ‘out-n-back’ to middle Saranac for my third time, a friend of Brett’s  gave me a ride in his truck to Tupper Lake (thanks Mike!).

Over the course of 4 days, I worked my way back to Brett’s house, following rivers and lakes. The best part was the morning mist, the lack of mosquitoes and the fall foliage.

The worst part was a ‘carry’ (aka ‘Portage’ or ‘Drag’ if you are me) of around a mile to connect Corey’s Pond to Upper Saranac Lake. The trail was too steep and had too many roots to use the little dolly that I normally placed under the kayak. And it was too heavy and awkward to carry the kayak as it is not a super lightweight/fancy one. So I ended up dragging it through the woods by the bow line. Fortunately the trail was covered with wet fall leaves which helped ease the way. Between dragging and running back to ferry gear (kayak was too heavy to drag with gear inside) it took about two hours to cover the ~mile. Arg!

Late Fall, 2024

November and December involved a lot of trail running. It wasn’t something I had really done in several years – sidelined due to some tendonitis, interest in paddling,  and also generally burned out after 10+ years of pretty focused efforts on running. But I had started (slowly)  running again during the summer with Bryony. It was  a resumption for her too, having been a serious cross-country runner in middle and high school.

We ended up signing up for a nearby 25k trail run in the middle of December. It gave us another excuse to hit the trails on nearby islands, and this time we had a mission.

December, 2024

After much anticipation, it was race time.  On of the best parts  was seeing Jason, Heather and their daughter Kai who came up from Seattle to cheer us on.   I had met Jason and Heather through shenanigans with Himalayan Adventure Labs in Nepal ~8 years ago and have met up over the years in Thailand, North Carolina, WA and Oregon. Hearing that they were moving to the PNW from North Carolina, was fantastic news.

A little camera shy in the picture above is Kali – the dog they adopted on our Langtang Lollipop adventure in 2018. The last time I had seen Kali was in Thailand in ~2019 when Jason and Heather were living in Bangkok.  Below is a picture of Kali from that trip in 2018, close to where she first attached herself to our group in the foothills of the Himalayas. We had doubts about her being able to get across the ~17,000ft+ pass that was on our route, but she ended up leading the way for us –  literally across perilous mountain passes.

January  – March, 2025

The rest of the winter was pretty cold and wet on the boat, but fortunately it went by fast with a lot of time spent in the Sail Loft at Northwest Rigging where I have been working on my sewing skills.

And there was a sailing trip in warm waters to look forward to; Jason and Heather’s sailboat ‘Raven’ was still in North Carolina.  I knew Raven a little – when I finished crewing  Sisserou to the Caribbean in December 2023,   I had stopped by my Uncle John’s house in New Bern, NC.  Raven was moored an hour away and Jason, Heather and Kai took us out on a day sail.

The plan for Raven was a multi-year, multi-stage move to eventually get it to Baha, Mexico.  Or possibly up the west coast to the PNW (which usually requires a detour to Hawaii as sailing straight up the west coast is notoriously difficult).  But Stage 1 would be sailing it to the east side of Panama in April before hurricane season started.

Would I be able to join and help? I was scheduled to teach a class but it was completely online, and in theory could be taught from anywhere, and it didn’t take much encouragement to add my name to the crew list. So I did.

That was a few months ago. Not all things go as planned though, we didn’t make it to Panama. But we did make it to the Bahamas and had a good adventure. And I’ve been back to northern New York for yet another visit (and a 4th kayak outing!). I’ll leave that for another day…