Archive for September, 2018

Testing a new phone.

Thursday, September 27th, 2018


Not much to tell about. I’m just hanging around Payson until my scheduled doctor appointments are taken care of. I’m testing out a new (to me) phone I received from Donna. It is an iPhone, so will involve relearning different system operations. It has been many years since I had an iPhone.

I can upload pictures in black and white. iPhone has no setting to lower camera resolution.


Over the last few years Don gave me a Samsung 4, Daryl gave me a Nexus Google Phone, and Donna has given me an iPhone 6+. It’s nice to have siblings that upgrade to the latest technology and give me perfectly good devices. Thanks again guys!

Picture Yourself…

Tuesday, September 18th, 2018

… in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and… No, that’s something else altogether.

Ready to launch at the boat ramp.

Hard to tell where the water and cliff met.

I haven’t been able to get that song out of my head every since I decided to stop overnight at McHood City Park near Winslow, Arizona and paddle the pretty river of Clear Creek. McHood Park is a small campground and day use area on the shore of Clear Creek Reservoir. The campground is nothing more than a parking lot but it is free for 14 days.

The temperature in Winslow this time of year is still in the 90’s, so I got up early and put my kayak in the reservoir next to the campground. The dam at the reservoir backs up the water into Clear Creek for a few miles and makes a beautiful place to float through the canyon of steep rock walls.

These guys swam right over to my kayak.

The reservoir was not very pretty for 1/2 mile or so – reeds along the shore and seaweed that scraped the bottom of the boat – but then you cross under the bridge and start into the canyon.

Day use area.

The canyon, rock walls get steeper and steeper until they tower over you in your little boat, almost making it dark as the sun is blocked from the narrow gorge. The cliffs are favorites of some visitors that come here to jump from high ledges into the water.

It felt kind of spooky to be all alone in the depths of the canyon, miles from anyone. Once in the deep canyon I had no cell signal. The only blessing was that the shade from the rock walls blocked the sun and increasing heat of the day.

Pretty!

It’s about 3 miles one way.

I finally reached the end of the navigable water. I met a young man there that had paddled his canoe earlier than me and was fishing by the shore. I asked him if I could go any further and he said I could go a little further but would have to drag my boat over many shallow places.

These are ancient petroglyphs on the walls.

On the way back I met six more people in one-person kayaks going the opposite way. One woman had a paddle board with a dog riding with her. My shoulders started hurting on the way back and my butt got sore from sitting so long on an unpadded seat. The wind also came up and blew in my face, making forward progress even more difficult.

I had my phone in a plastic baggie in a fanny pack when I started out, but taking it out of the plastic every time I wanted to take a picture got to be too much of a hassle. Of course when I got back to the boat ramp, I would fall in the water.

I stepped out of the boat and grabbed hold of the front handle to pull the boat up on dry part of the ramp. I didn’t realize just how slippery the algae covered concrete was and I went down in an instant. I floundered around for a bit and succeeded in dunking myself even deeper. Finally, I got hold of the dock and stood up, immediately pulling my phone from the fanny pack and setting it in the sun to dry. It was somewhat protected in the zippered pouch so just a little water got to it. Seems like it is fine.

It was noon when I got the kayak loaded and strapped down. I drove south to a familiar camp near Blue Ridge Ranger Station. The weather here should be nice for a few days.

Boat Trailer

Saturday, September 8th, 2018

My trailer will probably get some laughs!

It always seems that campgrounds by a lake are never right near the lake. It posed a problem for launching my kayak. I either had to carry it the distance to the shore or pack everything and drive Minnie to the boat launch. If I had a separate vehicle it would be easy to carry the kayak on a roof rack and spirit away to the boat launch.

Here at Storrie Lake you can pull down and camp anyplace along the lake. That makes it handy to put Boat in the water but not good if it rains and your stuck in the mud. Many campers like to park right by the water but it just feels too exposed to me.

One day I was pondering this dilemma and decided to see if my bicycle trailer would fasten to the end of my kayak. With a little modification and a couple tie down straps, the trailer fits snug to the boat. I added a couple boards and put an old rug down to cushion the plastic. I used it like this for a few times. I could pick up one end and either pull or push the boat like a wheelbarrow. This soon got old too. It was ok for a hundred yards or so, but any further left me with wobbly legs, reminiscent of a drunk walking along side of the road.

My workhorse.

In the middle of my dream a couple nights ago I thought of a way to use a PVC pipe that I picked up for my awning last year and modify the pipe to fasten to Honda. It’s still in the experimental stage with a couple of bugs to work out but I’m confident it will work. For now Honda has to be my workhorse around camp. I don’t know what I would do without him.

Nice kayaking when water is smooth.