Archive for the ‘kayaking’ Category

We set off for Hot springs Cove on a silky smooth sea. Puffins, eagles and ducks flew by overhead as we admired the jagged mountains on all sides. Just after 11, our reflections were shattered by an obnoxious blast in the face. The forecasted South westerly was probably funneling up the valley we were heading for and spilling round the corner. From flat calm to a 20 knot headwind in 1 minute; they do say that things change quickly round here. Still, can’t complain, by 1pm we were making fried tortillas for lunch. I the afternoon we had a 30 minute stroll up the valley to some prominent puffs of steam. The water in each hot spring was boiling as it came to the surface, then it ran down the hillside in a hot stream filled with green and orange weed. Some previous visitors had made pools using rocks but all of them were too hot to bathe in. After some engineering works ourselves which involved removing skanky weed with a reindeer antler and shifting lots of rocks, we tried to make a
pool where the hot steam joined a large river, with mixed success. The result was a shadow pool where one second you’d be hit by a too hot jet off water causing you to leap up and the next second a cold flow would make you shiver. Things change quickly on the land too! But we had fun and we are a bit cleaner again.

Tomorrow we hope to make some progress towards Unalaska. The last forecast we got was for fresh SW winds. When I send this message I’ll get a new forecast from Karel so we’re hoping it’s still the same and we’ll get a helpful push.

We set off for Hot springs Cove on a silky smooth sea. Puffins, eagles and ducks flew by overhead as we admired the jagged mountains on all sides. Just after 11, our reflections were shattered by an obnoxious blast in the face. The forecasted South westerly was probably funneling up the valley we were heading for and spilling round the corner. From flat calm to a 20 knot headwind in 1 minute; they do say that things change quickly round here. Still, can’t complain, by 1pm we were making fried tortillas for lunch. I the afternoon we had a 30 minute stroll up the valley to some prominent puffs of steam. The water in each hot spring was boiling as it came to the surface, then it ran down the hillside in a hot stream filled with green and orange weed. Some previous visitors had made pools using rocks but all of them were too hot to bathe in. After some engineering works ourselves which involved removing skanky weed with a reindeer antler and shifting lots of rocks, we tried to make a
pool where the hot steam joined a large river, with mixed success. The result was a shadow pool where one second you’d be hit by a too hot jet off water causing you to leap up and the next second a cold flow would make you shiver. Things change quickly on the land too! But we had fun and we are a bit cleaner again.

Tomorrow we hope to make some progress towards Unalaska. The last forecast we got was for fresh SW winds. When I send this message I’ll get a new forecast from Karel so we’re hoping it’s still the same and we’ll get a helpful push.

Sarah sometimes says”This is an expedition not a holiday”, well today was a holiday! We’ve decided to take a couple of days to explore Inanudak Bay which is a hot spot of volcanic activity. Otters and seals saw us on our way as we headed for Geyser Bight where two steam jets fire out from the hills high above the beach. Scott in Nikolski had told us we could walk up the valley below these and find a hot spring “quite a long way up the valley”. We set our tent up on the beach and tromped up the grassy dunes. A few herds of several dozen reindeer munched on the vegetation, some of them started when they saw us and ran off, tiny brown calves trotting hurriedly after their mothers. Two eagles flew low over us as we passed the rocky outcrop they were perched on, their gentle continuously cry probably warning us away from their nest.

After 2 hours we were pretty deep into the lush valley, surrounded by jagged mountains spattered with snow, punctuated by ribbons of water tumbling down rocky slopes. Finally we crested a hill and spotted 3 areas where steam rose promisingly from the grass. The first pool we reached was a great size and shape for a dip. The green weed covering the surface was a bit off putting but wasn’t going to stop us. Sarah dipped a finger in and almost immediately pulled it out again. It was far too hot to get in.

We had to wade across a river to get to the next one. My knee high waterproof Reed socks did a great job of keeping my other socks dry. This steam rose from a small steam. At first it seemed like it was also too hot but it fed into a non-thermal cold steam. Sarah set about making a wall out of rocks and turf and we created a small pool where the waters of two different temperatures mixed. I tested it out and while I had to leap out twice when it got too hot, overall it was great. How fantastic to have a hot water bath up in the beautiful mountains. Even better to discover it ourselves and make it own little pool.

Tomorrow we’ll just paddle a few miles east to Hot Springs Cove where we hope to have a similar experience in some hot springs a little closer to the beach.

After 5 days in Nikolski with mostly unfavourable winds, we waved goodbye to our new friends and headed northeast along Umnak island. To start with we could sail across the wind and the tide was helpful but after 3 hours the wind turned northerly, the tide was against us and thick keep hindered our progress. Still, it felt good to be back on the water, moving forwards, and seeing lots of wildlife. The silver lining of the kelp beds was that each one housed several otters who lounged casually on their backs or poked their heads up curiously at us. Several were in pairs of almost the same size, I’m not sure whether we were looking at a mother and fairly large baby or if it’s time for otters to make babies?

It’s great to be coastal paddling, rather than worrying about what the currents will do to us on a crossing. We kayaked past lots of stumpy black cliffs of contorted basalt columns, dotted with caves and arches, and sporting gargoyle like spikes and prongs.

We landed on a long curving black beach after about 8 and a half hours and 22 nautical miles. We hope the weather will allow us to reach hot springs Cove tomorrow where you can probably guess what the main attraction is!