andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Rafting, golfing, mowing, eating, riding, running, drinking, driving to Blacksburg

Well, the title pretty much covers what I've been up to since kayaking on the 23rd w Sam and Dan.

Tuesday, May 24th

First things first, I got up early to mow the lawn so I'd have time to get a new phone before going disc golfing.  I ended up getting the Droid PRO, and so far (6/2) I love it.  Much faster than my old phone and the blackberry keyboard is really nice.  And the batteries last two days.

After I got the phone, headed to Zdanowskis and we were off to play disc golf. I drove, but it really only took 25min to get there, not as bad as I remember.  After falling as much as three strokes behind, my consistently gigantic drives overcame Dan and John, for a four-stroke win on the day.  It was a gorgeous day out in Jamesville, and I actually played the whole thing barefoot.  There were some dude playing that were smoking and let us play on, it was funny when he told me "I've never heard a barefoot dude turn down a hit."

For dinner, I ate some delicious blackened talapia that my Dad aand Mom made, before going out for all you can eat wing night at Quaker Steak and Lube.  I drove again, and it was cool seeing people there from high school.  I didn't get all I could eat wings, but did eat an Atomic wing, rated at 150,000 SHU.

Wednesday

After spending about two hours deciding what we could all do together, my Mom, Bro, and I set out to play some mini-golf and get me a bread machine.  My Mom had one of those high school fundraiser discount cards, and it's actually a good deal at Fairmont Glen, which is where we went.  A single game pass is $7, and a three game pass is $14, and her discount was a BOGO three game pass.  So we got two three game passes, and a single game pass for the price of three single game passes!

We had the place to ourself, and its a really nice mini-golf place.  It's in the middle of busy commercial Fairmont, but set down into a quiet gully next to a stream.  Despite my Mom's four hole-in-ones, my consistent twos and threes (my only scores) were enough for an 11-point victory over Bro and Mom, who tied at 9 over par.   The "19th hole" is this thing you putt into so they get the ball back, that is a ramp the ball shoots off of, and it can go into the eyes, nose, mouth, or below a clown's face entirely. The eyes are a 4-stroke deduction, the mouth 2-strokes, and the nose is a free pizza and free game.  My competition swung away to no avail, and I used my superior patience and putt putt skill to send the ball directly into the nose!

I won a free game, pizza, bowling, an ice cream which I got right away and was delicious, wings, and some other stuff that I can't even remember.  Pretty sweet! From putt putt we went to Ra-Lins and got a bread machine, which has by 6/2 made four delicious loafs of honey whole wheat bread.  And on the way back we stopped for the free pizza, which my brother, Mom, and I split.

And then, I talked my Mom into going running with me at the park, which was great.  I beat up the soles of my feet wearing the Vibrams for 6 miles on cinder, but with some ice the feet were ready to go again.  It was the first time that I got to use my new Garmin Forerunner 310XT, and it's awesome.  Haven't had the slightest issue with it yet, which is soo amazing after being used to troubleshooting the powertap.  It transfers wirelessly to the computer, and auto-uploads the data, so after I finish an activity and set the watch next to my computer, it's uploaded by the time I'm done with a shower.  Here's the first run:

Thursday

I talked my Mom into rafting the Ninemile Creek, an idea that I'd heard about Kyle B, Tyler M, and Brian W attempting back in high school, and didn't get to do with Sam and Dan.  Well, it was good that Sam, Dan, and I stuck to Otisco Lake, because it was quite the adventure.

The creek was barely navigable, with huge trees down every hundred feet or so, making us portage our raft.  The whole trip covered 9 miles, which brought us only to Marcellus Park, and took 7.5 hours. It wasn't long before we ran into a huge pricker bush, and I got my arm all scratched up, and we put a slow leak into the raft.  For a while, I would stop and inflate every little bit just so we could keep going.  Eventually, we found a metal fishing boat that had been washed up ashore, and commandeered the vessel.  That allowed us to cruise on open water, because in a deflated raft and little current, it was slow going.  After many more miles, and the combined stubbornness of my Mom and I, we portaged the boat again and again before finally making it to park.  I was parched, and probably couldn't have gone too much farther without water, on such a hot day. I'm glad that we did it, and it'll definitely be an adventure to remember for my Mom and I.

Friday

Short bike ride, out downtown.

Saturday

Stuck around to maybe go up to Del's camp the next day, spend another day with the Fam, and go out with Dan and Dan for the night. Also went for a run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/88592596

Sunday

Drove to BBurg, ran to the top of Brush Mtn and hammocked for the night. Here's the run link: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89015500

Monday

Up really early, moved in! And of course, went for a ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89110266

Adventures!

On Monday, May 24th (yesterday) Dan Z's friend Sam S from Brockport came up to visit, and he had told me that she's outdoorsy and asked me to think of something to do.  So, my idea was to kayak the 9 mile!  With the logistical challenge of getting back to the cars to get the kayaks after we were done, and Dan not understanding my solution of dropping off bikes, we decided to just paddle around Otisco Lake.  Luckily Sam had a kayak for Dan to use too.

When I went to leave, my brother couldn't find the keys to the Subaru with the kayak on it, so I ended up taking the valet key. And, there was no gas in the car so we had to fill up on the way.  But with all that out of the way, we were headed over to Otisco Lake Park.

Paddling experts

What really made it interesting was the wind.  It was just another super windy upstate NY day, but that also means big waves out on the lakes.  The wind was strong enough yesterday to produce white-caps all across the lake.  White caps are waves that break, like ocean waves, hence the white.

Both Dan and Sam had her kayaks that were short and wide = slow and stable.  Mine was long and narrow = fast and unstable.  I learned quickly that every ounce of speed gained by a narrow, long kayak meant an equal loss in stability.  We got about 100 feet out, and as I was shouting to Dan how to paddle...not paying attention to my own kayak, I had been spun parallel with the waves.

Imagine this...but with huge, breaking waves

As I was still shouting to Dan, a big wave hit me from the side and before I could finish the sentence I was underwater.  I used the paddle to flip right back up, but I had taken on so much water from the previous wave that I was immediately hit by another wave and back underwater.  A swing of the paddle and I was back up, but another wave before I could get a word out and I was underwater again.  It was kinda fun, but after the kayak was entirely full of water, I bailed.

A little scary knowing this thing was lurking below

With the help of Sam and Dan, I floated/swam/hung-on-to-dans-kayak back to shore, and dumped out the water.  Dan and Sam had also taken on some water, and they drained their kayaks as well.  We set out toward the spillway at the northern end of the lake, going with the wind.

Not more than a few hundred feet away, I needed to turn around a small peninsula and in the process go parallel with the waves.  And before I knew it, I was flipping over again.  The other two were a hundred or so feet ahead, and I couldn't help just laughing as they looked back to see me standing in waist-deep water next to the kayak again.  Since I could touch, I dragged it to shore, and off we went again.

Two spills early, and I had learned how to handle the kayak in rough water the hard way.  I didn't flip it again, nor did I let the boat get sideways.

Approaching the spillway, Sam was thinking about going over it.

Without a helmet, I'm glad she didn't (it's not this big though)

From there, we decided to attempt going back up the west shore.  I again needed to dump water out of the kayak, and they took off.  In my sleeker kayak though, I chased down the 200ft between in a matter of like one minute.  As we got out into the waves, I was a few feet ahead, but didn't dare looking behind me...if it threw me off balance for half a second I would be underwater with these waves.  And to maintain a line that was close to perpendicular, I had to paddle pretty hard.  And so I kept going at it, trying to stay afloat, for awhile.  By the time I'd found somewhere to pull off, I was exhausted.  I beached the boat on a nice shoreline (the first one I'd got to).  It was someone's camp, and I went to up and asked the dude up top if he minded if I hung out for a few minutes on his deck.  He was cool, and I came back down to look for my comprades.  But I couldn't see them at all.  I unloaded all the gear from my kayak, remembering that I had taken the gatorade, score!  And I explored the woods for a little while in my five fingers looking for a place to pee, and found a cool waterfall actually.

After all of this, I looked out off the dock again, and could barely make out two bobbing yellow dots...their paddles! I was glad to see them, as I worried they had given up on this shore and headed back, but they were coming.  However, they were a really long way away, into strong waves and headwind.  So I laid out, put my bright kayak where it was visible from the lake, and took a nap.  Eventually they made it in, having been worried that I flipped or something along the way.  We all took a rest, and decided how to cross the lake.  I had to take sharp angles against the waves, or would take on too much water, so my choices were to circumnavigate the whole lake, or take a diagonal across.  They were slower, but could also go straight across in their kayaks.  So, I set out to take the long way, and they went straight back to the park.

As I recall, the waves were nearly this large! (kidding)

It was a long haul, paddling hard the entire time on a long path diagonally across the lake, but I kept my sights set on a nice patch of shoreline.  Eventually I made it there, and went right onto the beach. Rest!  I needed to dump the kayak again, and set off along the east shore, with the waves and the wind.

Naturally, going with the waves should have been easier, but boy was that wrong.  I think that I was going much faster, but every time a wave hit the back of my boat, it took all of my effort to not let it spin my parallel with the wave.  Since I had some angle to the waves at my back, they kept grabbing the back and trying to spin it.  So again I fought really hard all the way back....and by the time I was approaching the park, I was exhausted.  The other two were pulling their kayaks out, and I saw Sam jump in for a swim.  By the time I rolled up they were both headed back to the cars, but I went for a good dip in the water, it felt amazing.  I'd gotten a great workout.

After we loaded the kayaks I found a dry shirt for Dan and it was off to Subway! Footlong chicken terriyaki never tasted so good.

Back at Dan's I couldn't convince Sam to come trail running with me in her matching five fingers, she had to get back to Buffalo that night. Bummer.  It wasn't until I went outside though until I realized I'd locked the valet key in the car.  Crap.  Barefoot, I jogged back home, thinking that Kyle would have found the other key by then, and I'd go back and get the car.

He hadn't found it yet though, and I accidentally threw the Zdanowskis for a loop.  They saw me leave their house, but 5 minutes later noticed my car was still there...and I wasn't answering my cell phone (it was in the car!) They thought that maybe I had been kidnapped! Eventually I called AAA to get the car unlocked, and they were supposed to give me 5min notice before they got there.  But the dude only called me when he was at their house, so I sprinted down there (barefoot!) and caught him as he was finishing up. Before I got there though, Mrs. Zdanowski came outside to see a guy breaking into my car, and still had no idea what had happened to me. The AAA dude told her that "he locked his keys in the car..." though and we were all good.

What a crazy day!! It was a lot of fun, and today my goals are: mow lawn, trail run with my new Garmin watch that should be showing up, finish my spring research summary (check!), go get the Droid Pro so I'll have a reliable cell, disc golfing with Zdan at 3, and then Quaker Steak and Lube with a bunch of ppl for dinner!