Ken Mannshardt, who usually organizes the BASK Mendocino Campout, decided to reserve the Russian Gulch campground for five days, instead of the usual weekend, and take most of the week off. Since I was in Del Norte County the week before I decided to hang around and not bother going home between camping trips. So I showed up on Wednesday and was one of the first people to arrive.
Bryant Austin was there also and the two of us went for a paddle. I gloried in all the caves north of Russian Gulch after finding so few in Del Norte County. I aggressively went through all the arches and I'm pretty sure I went into a few that I had never risked before. The mild 3 foot swell every ten seconds was continuing from the week before and made this a relatively safe occupation. At first I thought Bryant was hanging back and I asked him if I was dragging him into places he normally would not go. He assured me this was not the case. He was paddling his new Tsunami X-15, the preferred boat of adventuresome kayakers. Over the next few days Bryant spent a lot of time rock gardening and caving with John Dixon, one of the Tsunami Rangers. I heard some comments later that Bryant was in training, with John as instructor, to become a Tsunami Ranger. If this is true then I definitely should not have been concerned about leading Bryant in over his head!
On our trip back I stopped just inside the mouth of the cove to catch an abalone for dinner. This was a place very close to shore where I had taken Maryly last year and found cracks in shallow water that were loaded with abalone. While Bryant watched from the surface, I got into my diving gear and went down a few times. The pickings did not look good and I could not find the cracks between the larger rocks that I remembered from the year before. But I did find one for dinner that evening. Bryant said I made catching them look easy. Starting on Friday, there were a few zodiac boats parked in the mouth of the cove and a lot of diving activity out there. I thought little about it until Saturday afternoon when I wanted to catch a few more abalone to share for the big BASK pot-luck dinner. I didn't want to paddle out to a remote location so I stopped in the same place again. This time the pickings were very slim. I guess that the guys in the boats had really fished this spot out. I dove and dove and could not find any legal abalone, even coming up with one undersized one I had to put back. This rarely happens to me. I Finally found what I think are the cracks I saw so many abalone in last year, but the surge going into the cove was very strong and I wore myself out trying to stay there.
John Somer, another BASKer, was my dive buddy but he was just learning to abalone dive. He gave up and headed for shore. Several other people were watching and Don Barch said he would go to shore, get dressed in dive gear, and come back out to be my dive buddy. I was left all alone resting in my kayak. When I caught my breath I started diving solo and going farther and farther away from areas I had found abalone before. Finally I managed to bring up two legal ones and headed back before Don had borrowed enough gear to join me. The abalone I had caught for the pot luck were legal but just barely and smaller than I would like to pick. The area was apparently getting over-fished and I felt I should have found somewhere else and left these two to help the population recover. In a kayak I should have been able to go to a remote location where the abalone population was more healthy. Next time I will.
In the five days that we were in the campground we did a lot of paddling, so much that I forget most of the individual trips. I ended up going on another paddle through the caves north of Russian Gulch with a larger group. We went into the fjords around the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse and even landed in one. We walked up from the bottom of the fjord to enjoy the view. Lisa Weg was not around to greet us so we soon returned to our boats and paddled back to camp. On Friday evening Maryly joined me at the campground and joined us for a paddle from Van Damme Beach to the Albion Harbor. Maryly was in her new Tsunami X-1 and still trying to get comfortable in it. The swell at sea was finally starting to rise up a little although it was still calm enough to go into the Cemetery Cave and several others. We paddled into the cave I call the "Cave of Doom" and it was no problem this time. Either the mouth of the triangular entrance I got stuck behind has been worn larger in the last few years, or the tide was a lot lower this time. John Dixon with Bryant in tow found a little cave that they didn't think they could fit their boats into. So at John's instigation they got out of their boats and walked/swam into the cave. They came out exclaiming about a waterfall at the end and told me it was worth the trip. I eyeballed the cave and decided that my boat would fit in there. I think their kevlar boats would have fit but were in greater danger of getting scratched or broken than my flexible plastic one. So I paddled into the cave, pulling myself along between the walls for the most part, and was also able to see the waterfall.
On one point we found an arch with rough water leading up to it. The water was rough because it was shallow with a field of rocks sticking up out of the water on the troughs of the waves. I surfed over these to get to the mouth of the cave. Another instance when having a plastic boat that you don't mind scratching up is an advantage. Often just a psychological advantage as in this case where I timed the waves right and didn't actually scratch my boat anyway. Once in the mouth of the cave I waved my intentions to continue to everyone else who was going around. The arch had three entrances with waves coming from different directions and making a lot of echoing noise inside. It was a little rough so I continued out the far side a little to quickly. Out there I discovered that the exit went in front of a shelf of rock that the waves pored over. This created a suction that rolled my boat right over. I considered trying to roll my boat upright but discarded the idea immediately. I popped to the surface, pushed the boat upright, jumped in and made it out before the next large wave arrived. No one else seemed to notice that I had gotten into a little trouble.
As we approached Albion Harbor I recalled going behind the rocks to get inside on a previous trip. But with the tide so low, it did not look passable this time. Because of the increasing waves, the trip around the point did not look very good to everyone else either. Maryly for one was tiring of keeping her new tipsy boat upright. I could see the boat vibrating back and forth on its long axis as she overcorrected for the disturbance of the waves. Penny Wells lead us out around the point and through the waves. Penny is such a consummately good kayaker that this gave everyone a big boost in confidence, just to watch her navigating a route. Maryly made it without falling over and we all safely paddled into the harbor for our shuttle back to camp.
On Sunday morning we didn't have time for a long paddle so we packed up most of our stuff and went to Caspar Beach. Here as we had hoped there were good conditions for kayak surfing. I had brought my new Pirouette river boat to get some experience surfing it. Ken Mannshardt had brought a small fiberglass surfing boat to play in. Maryly was in her X-1 again and trying to get some experience bracing it in surf. She started out in the shallow water bracing into the breakers when they had weakened close to shore but worked her way farther out as the morning progressed. I saw her do at least one great job of riding a big breaker in, broaching and bracing to keep her boat upright. I am still a timid surfer and only got a few great rides but I increased my confidence about being in the waves in a sit-inside boat. I practiced my roll a few times until the cold water running up my ears made me dizzy. I'm going to have to start wearing earplugs for this water! John Somer and a few other BASKers were out in large touring boats. Not the right boats for serious surfing, but the boats they might be in one day in and emergency so exactly the right boats to be practicing in. I'm not sure who had the most trouble but I saw these guys exiting and towing their boats to shore several times. Maryly's X-1 is a hard-shell sit on top so she had an easier time getting back in when she fell over.
When we arrived at Caspar Beach there were a few board surfers trying out the waves. After a while they all disappeared. We joked about driving the board surfers away and taking over the beach. But soon we discovered that with the changing tide the waves were calming down and weren't as good for surfing as they were when we arrived. The board surfers had probably figured this out sooner than we did. So all too soon is was time to pack up and start the long drive home.