10 minute loading zone, new camera bag

It seems like the 10-minute loading zone at Eckley pier is popular with people who can't tell time, but maybe they are just so baffled by the twin concepts of "10-minute parking" and "loading zone" that they can't cope - the driver of the car in the picture was so confused that he wasn't able to navigate between the parallel white lines, and apparently wasn't able to find the car again once he had left it.

There's usually a place to park in spite of all that.

 

Parking for the intellectually challenged.

New camera bag.

The (supposedly) waterproof camera bag that I've been using keeps the camera dry in the kayak, but water on the bag over the camera's lens messes up the photos, and there's never anything dry to wipe the water off with. 

The new (actually old, but unused) Aquapak waterproof camera bag has a lens cap thingy, so that the part of the bag that covers the lens isn't constantly wet - if you remember to snap it completely shut after each time you use it, and you don't drop the camera in the water, and the camera doesn't get splashed when you're taking a shot; you also have to remember to hold the cover back against the front of the bag.

The old camera bag.

The best way to shoot from the kayak, it turns out, is to take the camera out of the bag when it's safe to do so, and put it back in when it's not.  This is at least as much a pain in the keister as shooting with the camera in the bag, but the images tend to be better this way.

Various photos from the Carquinez Strait

Glen Cove, not shot from the kayak

 These are from-the-kayak photos (except the Glen Cove shot) that I didn't like enough to post on flickr.

I think this is part of a sunken boat near the Crockett marina

Crockett marina and the south end of the bridges

A ship at the C&H dock

Downstream from the bridges

Crockett

At the second oil terminal west of the bridges

Approaching the Crockett marina

Looking upstream from near Glen Cove - it's not all tankers, C&H, and bridges

Kayak cart 2.2

The kayak cart might finally be ready to take on the dirt trail at Lone Tree Point.

The unfolded kayak cart

 The kayak now stays put relative to the cart, and the cart still folds and fits easily in the car.

The folded kayak cart

 Total cost: about $10.  The original cart cost $5 at Urban Ore, the new bungees cost $4 (some cheap dips**t stole the old ones off the cart while it was on the beach), and the wood scraps, duct tape, and foam thingies probably cost around a buck.

Edit, 10\8\11:  The cart has been successfully tested on a sandy beach, on a gravelly beach, and on the tiny steep rocky weedy trail between the pier and the beach at Eckley.

5\11\12:  I've made a kayak cart for camping, and details are at http://tedhamiter.blogspot.com/2012/05/stowable-kayak-cart.html.

More Eckley pics

The pier again; these are the images that weren't posted on flickr.

Eckley pier

Waitin' for a train.  The stupid train actually stopped for several minutes, blocking the crossing, and it took so long to pass Eckley that two Amtrak trains passed it while I was waiting.

Kayak on the cart at the crossing

I saw other kayaks at Eckley for the first time.  I didn't get a chance to ask if they were locals or not.

Near the abandoned oil terminal upstream from Port Costa

Wharf bones near the pier

Stopped near Port Costa

Shots from the kayak on the Carquinez Strait

I've been bringing my old compact digital camera in a plastic bag when I go paddling on the strait, and sometimes the pictures aren't completely ruined by glare or water on the plastic.  (There are more shots of the area taken with the Pentax in my flickr photostream.)


The south shore on the Carquinez Strait has the remains of old wharves from Port Costa to the C&H property in Crockett.  There are hundreds of pilings, like these:

Wharf bones

More wharf skeletons

The Eckley slalom course

Eckley ruins

C&H is downstream from the wharf skeletons.  Sometimes there's a ship at their dock (this one is the Moku Pahu), but I think the view's interesting whether there is or not.

The Moku Pahu at C&H

The Moku Pahu, with the Carquinez bridges in the background

The kayak Kayak and the Moku Pahu

Port Costa is upstream.  There's a sometimes-shady beach that makes an ideal place to pull out and look for camera batteries, provided there's aren't a bunch of people fishing there.  (You morning people may have to do without shade).  That's Mt. Diablo in the background.

Port Costa shore

These last two weren't shot from the kayak - I'll let you guess why.

Kayak cart 2.0

This is the second kayak cart I've made - the first one wasn't as easy to use, and the wheels were too small to be really practical.

This is a folding golf bag cart with some of the extra things cut off of it, and some bungee cords added.  It works (and I've used it) as it is, but it would work better with some tweaking.

I bought the cart from Urban Ore in Berkeley, CA, for $5.  The bungees with snaps on one end and hooks on the other were bought as a kit at Home Depot (off the clearance table) for about $2.  The 'regular' bungee used on the cart's handle was just hanging around the house.

The bungees attached to the wheel supports are connected around the kayak to one side of the cockpit, and the cart's handle is bungeed (isn't it annoying when people verb nouns?) to the kayak near the bow or the stern, whichever is closest.  The rest of the gear is piled into the kayak, and then I can push or pull the kayak from either end. 

One of the drawbacks to the cart's current state is that the kayak can roll relative to the cart, and when I try to pull the kayak down the weedy little gravel path from the paved walk to the beach at Eckley the kayak tends to twist to one side and then the whole thing falls over, which is annoying, albeit not a great big deal.  And I'm not sure the golf bag cart is meant to hold the weight of the kayak (50 or 60 pounds).  On the plus side, it has a handy gizmo in the handle for storing a couple of golf balls.  Yay!

When I get to the beach at Eckley I shove the cart behind a big piece of driftwood and hope that nobody notices it.  This strategy works, so far, and I can load the kayak back on the cart once I'm done paddling without having to walk back to the car first.  (Update: last Sunday some misguided person swiped the bungie cords off the cart while I was out.  Now I'm going to leave the cart in the car.)  With cart v1.0 it was possible to take the cart apart and stash it in the kayak - but it never seemed to be worth the bother.

To do:  there is a Y-shaped plastic things near the middle of the unfolded cart that needs to be cut down, then make wider, and given a 'sticky' surface that won't allow the kayak to slide easily.  I can't get rid of the plastic thing altogether because it's needed for the unfolded handle to lock into place.

Paddling at Lone Tree Point in Rodeo (again)

I'm going to write this up once I actually launch my kayak there.  In the meantime here are some thoughts about it.

The empty Joseph's Resort lot at Lone Tree

Until recently, the uninspiring area (adjacent to Lone Tree park) shown in the photo had a few derelict buildings on it, and a sign that said "private property."  Now the buildings and the piles of the junk are gone, leaving a sort-of paved area, a burnt-out derelict pier, and lots of trash.  Apparently you can park there now without upsetting anyone, and access a small rocky beach between the empty lot and the bay.  This means that you can get your kayak directly to the water - sort of.  You still have to climb across some rip-rap to get to the beach at the parking lot, which seems doable, but not as appealing as the older alternative: carrying, dragging, or carting the kayak and gear across the park to the beach near the tree and the picnic table.  The latter should be easier to do now that there is a sort-of parking lot, and I'm going to try it if I can get up early enough.  It seems like the summer westerlies would make this place a pain to deal with in the afternoon, so I'll just go to Eckley if it's later in the day.

Update: the empty lot next to Lone Tree is still private property, and the sheriff told me that he's supposed to arrest anyone who trespasses - but so many people are doing that, he just doesn't have the time to deal with it.

Beach, complete with sheriff and Corolla

I took another look at the wharf ruins on the lot, and noticed that there's a concrete ramp that leads directly to a sandy beach, so that you could (if it wasn't trespassing) unload your kayak directly onto the beach.  The concrete and wood remains of the pier act as a breakwater, so that part of the beach is protected from the wind and waves.

The green strip at the water's edge is either seaweed or dead eelgrass; I suppose I would shove all that aside if I wanted to put in my kayak.

The beach at Lone Tree

 For now, if I get a chance to launch at Lone Tree (that is, if I can get up and get packed in the early-to-mid morning) I'll park in the area outside of the empty lot and the park, and wheel all my stuff to the beach near the Lone Tree.  I hope the EBRPD will aquire the empty lot, even tho' that means the old wharf ruins will have to be torn down, since they're currently an ideal place for a small child's parents to develop an expensive lawsuit.

Update, August 2012:
The last time I went by Lone Tree a gate had been installed to block off the only parking adjacent to the park.  I suppose this was done after many complaints by the owners of the Joseph's Resort lot about trespassers on their property.  You may be able to park on the bridge at the end of Pacific Ave., or on the end of San Pablo Ave, and maybe in the marina (the gates are locked at 4:30 or 5:00pm).

So--you can probably still launch at Lone Tree, but it's become a bigger hassle.  Portage time (one way) was a few minutes to cart your stuff from the car to the beach; now it's probably five to ten minutes.  I've launched there a couple of times this summer, but I don't think I'm going to bother to launch there again, even tho it's one of the very few places that I know of where it's possible to get a kayak to the water on the east side of San Pablo Bay.  The other spots, incidentally, also suffer from limited access, or long portage times, or from poor access to the water when the tide is low.