jeffcasey

As promised, a few photos. First - assembling the boats at the put in. We are 3 miles south of the official "badwater parking lot" which is where the crowds were. Here, it is just a pull off from the road, and only a few feet from the car to the water. Next, we are paddling out. Water only about a foot deep here. The road runs along the east perimeter of the valley (death valley is huge and long and thin, running predominantly north-south). Here are Eric and Stacey in their tandem. Jay is scraping along in his tandem. Then we keep heading out - looking west across the valley, the slope rises steeply up to Telescope Peak (a bit over 11,000'). A nice climb by the usual trail, an epic one going straight up from the valley. The lake bed is almost always bone dry with massive deposits of salt, salt towers, salt crystals, nasty stuff. Not a place for bare feet. Now, with all the water, the bottom seems to be slimy slick mud, and the water is saturated salt water. Salt crystals are floating and reforming on the water, and everything (you, boat, camera) quickly become totally encrusted. (it wasn't as skanky as it looks, but it was a bit skanky.) From further out, looking back to the east shows the cliff face up towards Dante's View (there is a road to an overlook there - a classic place for photos at sunset, and it was used in the very first Star Wars movie where Luke and Obiwan are supposedly looking down at a town in the desert (painted in). I think the ridgeline up there is around 6,000' elevation. It is a technical canyoneering decent (i.e. lots of tricky rappels) down from the ridge to the valley floor. Looking north along the length of the valley --- it goes a looooong way..... you burn a lot of gas on a vacation in death valley. And, of course, looking west is up to Telescope Peak. South, the way we drove in, is again along the length of the valley, but we are close to the south end, so it rises fairly quickly up that way. Jay finally gave up trying to dig in with his paddles, and resorted to poling for propulsion - perhaps he thought he was a gondalier. (I guess limeys like Sir Christopher call this "punting".) And here is a photo that Stacey took, showing yours truly in my trusty old Big Kahuna (which I really should get rid of, as i'm too old and inflexible to get in and out of it with suitable agility -- see the for sale thread.)

sir christopher - still can't spell "favor" you colonial? we do sneak back from time to time, but laurel to visit our son and myself for work mostly, and we tend to the quick attack and fast getaway....we can't take the humidity anymore. someday...someday.

Feathercraft made great folding boats long before the inflatables such as Sea Eagle figured out how to make balloons seaworthy. The Feathercrafts were like "bird cages" of aluminum poles held together by shock cord, that you poke into bow and stern of a neoprene skin, and then expand with clever hardware. They can be a challenge to put together, but are generally excellent boats. Folded up, they fit into a canvas bag that becomes a backpack, or can be checked on a plane. The Kahuna and Big Kahuna are for intermediate paddling, and a bit easier to assemble/disassemble than the others. The Big Kahuna has a slightly larger cockpit for larger paddlers. These boats do need care to keep watertight and to keep the aluminum tubes clean and easy to slide on and off each other. I bought this Big Kahuna used (from the famous north shore paddling shop which name I forgot) around 2002 or 2003. I don't know what usage it got before me, but I have only lightly used it over the years -- it was my travel boat (rarely) or my third boat when more than one visitor needed a loaner. I have paddled it in moderate chop and currents around Cape Ann several times, and found it agile and fun. It is kind of cool to be able to feel the restless water against your skin through the neoprene. I moved west in 2010, have rarely paddled since, and just today took the Big Kahuna out......discovering that I am just too old and inflexible to get in and out of the cockpit with agility. I think this boat wants a good new home. We'd have to work out shipping, and a fair price -- I have no idea what that is. Let me know if you are interested. Feathercraft no longer makes these, but their website still exists, they claim to still sell accessories, and they still have full documentation on their old line. Rather than me re-iterate it all here, I suggest you go to their page to look at photos and download all the assembly instructions and specifications. This model is dark green, no hatches, and came with a rudder (which I have never used) and a sea sock & spray skirt (which I have). https://www.feathercraft.com/kahuna-big-kahuna Email me: jeff@jeffcasey.net or call 781-454-7648

Hi folks - I haven't posted here in about 15 years. I miss you all! I have wanted to paddle Death Valley for decades, but the water only fills up the basin deep enough for paddling once a decade (or less), and I've missed a couple opportunities from other circumstances. The lowest point in the western hemisphere is here -- "badwater", usually a dry salt pan, at 282 feet below sea level. The west coast hurricane Hillary filled up the basin last august to a couple feet deep, but the roads were all washed out and nobody could get in. Two weeks ago, a couple of those "atmospheric rivers" took aim at california with death valley more or less in the bullseye (well, bullseye after being squeezed out by a few mountain ranges in the way). Now or never, right? I went out with 3 friends (these are mountaineering friends from Las Vegas, not paddling friends, as there is no paddling here to speak of). We drove out early today (sunday 2/25), expecting a bit of a zoo as the internet chatter on the paddling was getting loud and popular. We got to our put in about 9-9:30 am -- we didn't go to the official "badwater" turnout, as we expected most people to go there, and knowing the area, we knew that about 3 miles south of there is a nice spot where you can pull off the road with about a 3 foot approach to the water. I had my Feathercraft Big Kahuna (having long since sold the rest of my fleet after moving west), and Eric and Stacey were in a Sea Eagle inflatable tandem, Jay was solo in one of the same. I was ok drafting in less than a foot of water, they were ok if they removed their keel fins (although they lost most directional control). We never saw water over ~2.5 feet deep, and that was quite a ways out. Murky and salty -- there were even salt crystals floating and/or reforming on the surface of the water....it looked skanky, but actually wasn't bad other than the extreme salt crusting everything. So we notched this record, long awaited. The paddling? Calm, flat, no wildlife, no surf, no weather. 80F air in late morning, water probably 60-65 (cool but not cold). The scenery was fantastic -- we're clearly in barren desert, paddling on a salt lake, with 6000' of nearly-cliff like mountains rising on our near side, looking across at the continuous rise up to Telescope peak on the west at over 11000' and covered with a healthy dollop of snow. (If I can figure out my wife's little camera, I'll come back and post a few pictures). We basically floated around ooh-ing and aah-ing at the scenery for an hour, and headed back in. Eric and Stacey were doing fine in their tandem, but Jay found it difficult to paddle in the shallow draft -- he disassembled his paddle to make two poles ~3' long and moved along gondalier fashion by lying on his back and poling the bottom !! With less than 2' of draft, I clearly couldn't dig deep with my paddle, and just puttered along with lazy sweep strokes watching the scenery. Where there were 4-5 cars at the put in when we paddled out, there were now about a dozen. We drove back to Las Vegas the more usual route, through the "nexus" of death valley at furnace creek, which took us past the official badwater parking lot and park service signs. There were at least 50 if not 100 cars here, overfilling the lot and parked along the roadway for at least a half mile in both directions. People were everywhere, in every sort of garb, about a quarter of them with every sort of floating contrivance you can imagine. I have never seen this many people in death valley since the last "superbloom" (when the cars were parked everywhere, the barren rock fields were transformed into the poppy fields from the wizard of oz, and thousands of people were wandering through the flowers looking like migrant farm pickers). Some people were scrambling over a quarter mile of rocks to get from their car to the water. If you go, be sure to go a few miles further south of the badwater lot to the better put in, which is obvious when you see it. This year's puddle is predicted to remain only for a few weeks, but the rangers are notoriously bad at making such predictions....the water table for a hundred miles around got soaked and by all reports the Amaragosa river is still infilling it even though the storm was a couple weeks ago. Nevertheless, if you have any interest in notching this unusual below-sea-level paddling trip on your belt, best do it asap. Is it worth it? Depends on what you are looking for, but I'm glad I finally did it. Jeff Casey Las Vegas, NV / Cedar City, UT (formerly of MA and NSPN regular).

Stunned indeed. Jed was immortal.

bring your boats out here....we'll do a midnight cruise of Lake Mead. not much in the way of wave action, but the desert is lovely this time of year.

sorry, i've just been out of synch with the moon on my visits so far this year. soon, though....

where is the "LIKE" button on this website?

no, can't make it tonight. it is looking like i won't make it out this trip...heading back early tomorrow instead of friday. next month....

this evening won't work. tues? thurs?

I'm in town through thursday. Krunged boat is hastily patched, gotta try it out. Anybody up for something tues or thurs? Perhaps something moonlit?

correctomundo - you stir up colder stuff from deeper down. hurricanes can dampen themselves this way, by the way....once the winds and waves get big, they can stir up colder water from below, which shuts down the growth engine and moderates the size of the storm. if you follow the real weather technies, you see that there are a lot of factors that play into storm growth besides the obvious sea surface temp: 1) wind shear -- different wind speeds or directions at different altitudes -- really suppresses growth of hurricanes, or can shut down existing ones...they want still air to swirl around in 2) ocean temperature profile -- for the reasons above, an ocean temp profile that stays warm a long ways down can support growth of really big ones

are y'all still alive?

winds will be strong and out of the south. perhaps you can snag Smuttynose as you get blown by on your way to Nova Scotia... ...please be careful out there Sir Godfrey.

thank you all. i shoulda looked on the web before bothering you all...the old building just had much more of an "out of business" look than a "moved out" look. i know the area well, found the new site, and got stuff. already have most of the patching done...may not get the boat out paddling this trip, but for sure next trip (mid sept). the damage looks light enough that the patch should be sufficient -- at least no worse than a half dozen other kludges holding the boat together....

Arrived back in town last night - on way back from a client today, I pulled into West Marine in Woburn to get supplies to fix my poor beat up boat. Surprise! They are gone. Advice? Where can I get fiberglass sheet (small quantities), resin and fixer, gloves, and a few other assorted items -- all my tools and parts are in Nevada - I gotta improvise something fast. Is West Marine out of business or did they just move the Woburn store? I need someplace close. Help!!!

Boat: 12(?) year old "Formula" Diamonte (same as Impex, but bought in Canada instead of US), kevlar. Horribly misused over the years. Damage: hull is "caved in", with a deep crease about 8-10" long, directly across the bottom of the hull, about under the knees.... It looks like a deep crease that cracks/penetrates enough that water would leak through some, but I didn't put it in water to check -- it is so structurally suspect that I think it would jackknife if separated from the stiffer glass deck. (Come to think of it, the hull **has** separated from the deck on a couple of occasions, messily patched). Is it junk? The kevlar is quite a bit more compliant than ordinary glass, and I am afraid that if I glass in a repair patch from the inside, it will simply transfer the stresses to the edges of the patch and re-crack there. If nobody has any better ideas, I'm going to try to patch w/ glass nonetheless, and carefully feather the patch out in all directions to spread the stresses. (the kevlar noticeably gives in seas, much more than a glass boat does, not as much as a cloth boat). I'm not in a hurry...I'm back in Nevada, boat garaged in Winchester...but I hope to try a repair on my next trip out (mid Aug). I'm in the information gathering stages now. I know that Brian Nystrom has a wealth of info on repairs and patches, but can't find a website link. I'm sure many of you have at least $0.03 worth of useful advice here as well, and I want to hear all of it before I mix the first epoxy. I could give a damn about the gelcoat -- there wasn't much left on the boat anyhow. I also don't care much about cosmetics, as any of you who paddle with me could certainly attest. I do want to fix this boat, however....there is a lot of both customization and sentiment poured into this silly piece of flotsam. On the other hand, if the wise fools out there advise me that this is a symptom of embrittlement signalling the end of safe paddling with this kevlar, I may take that to heart and find something new (or bring back my feathercraft to MA). Help please?

....<whimper>.... wrong coast. have fun without me.

at least i look both ways...it wouldn't do to offend a passing pontoon boat of nuns or girl scouts. ....but i wasn't speaking of modesty, only trying to suppress a repeat description of surgery in more sensitive areas...if i cringe too much i spill my drink.

nice story, Rick. by the way, don't forget to keep wearing swim trunks!

i'm too scotch to let you toss a working radio, even if working is a generous term. perhaps i can contribute to its replacement? in any case, don't throw the battery away!!! if we work a deal, i'll take the battery along with the charger.

My HX460SB - one of the many purchased in a club lot many years ago - is still running, but the charger seems to have gotten lost in the move. I know that there are a lot of folks who gave up on this radio out there... are there any chargers left around with no radios to mate to? I can rig something up, but this is easier..... (2nd choice -- if anybody has a charger and won't let it go, can you check the polarity of the plug? I know that it is 7.2V, but I can't find doc on the polarity.)

"Decent ones with adequate ties for maximum flexibility are getting are to find." that I can help with.... there used to be something that Colin Fletcher called "Visklamps", which were rubber balls and little metal figure 8 hoops, which you'd use to tie a line anywhere to a tarp. Once in awhile you can find them in the odd catalog (I'm sure somebody will throw a link up here), sold under a different name. you can often find functional equivalents, usually plastic. such as: http://www.tarps-tarps.com/tarp-accessories/super-snap-grommets-4-pack/prod_594.html with a small handful of these, a light tarp with no grommet holes at all is easiest and lightest.

you can get a hammock with rain fly and bug screen built in -- we used them in the keys. links here: http://hennessyhammock.com/catalog/#hammock i've used bivvy sacks in a variety of occasions. just like you surmised, they are a lot better if you combine with a tiny tarp to keep your head dry...imagination is the key to setting up well for this, but the usual help from trees/rocks/etc can improve the layout. i used to like my little walrus 1-man micro-tent...a present from my wife. it was slightly better than a bivvy, still 1-man, but with tiny poles to lift it a bit off the bag. can't sit up in it, but you aren't sleeping in a plastic bag. i've survived downpours in this just fine, but getting in and out of it during a downpour is an art. walrus is gone now...bought out by MSR by all accounts, but i don't see the equivalent in the MSR online catalog now. i pretty much stopped carrying it when i got an REI quarter dome T1 with my dividend years ago...it is a real tent, 1-man (two in a pinch but it will be intimate), with bug netting for the upper, and a good fly sheet. it is a hair bulkier than the walrus, but about the same weight...so the justification for the walrus disappeared. the quarter dome is a very nice compromise, you can sit up in it, etc etc. i still use this a lot, and always take it for solo protection if rain is likely or certain...i only do the bivvy thing (or nothing) if the outlook is pretty dry. an ancient buddy has a long-discontinued chouinard pyramid -- an excellent design. it is eight triangles of material sewed into a pyramid, taking one pole in the middle. set it high to hold off the dew, set it right on the ground to hold off a driven rain. room for two. long ago (decades?) i tried to make one just like it, and ended up with nothing but huge amounts of material and folds, no volume. i guess you sorta have to get the catenaries right. last month, a reunion with this old friend in central utah was both a good time, and (when he brought the old thing) a chance to make detailed measurements on it. with the modern ultra-light coated nylons and the good measurements, i'm going to try again, but haven't yet. i can keep you posted if you want. there is a good discussion of some similar things available now on the web: http://www.larsonweb.com/shelter/id5.html this seems like the ideal for my desert hiking, but may not be so hot for island camping here in new england where bugs are an issue. and yes, as Bob said, I rarely take a stove for less than a few days or very cold weather. you can really do fine with a block of cheese, gatorade, nuts, fruit, fig newtons...etc. who needs stew? i started looking more dubiously at prepared backpacking meals when i started carrying a bear barrel -- trying to reduce volume got me looking up caloric content, and those "efficient" meals are not much better than cereal or mac&cheese. a block of hard cheese (i.e. parmesan) is unsurpassed -- other than by straight olive oil -- for calories per cc. I also find that I enjoy the gestalt of not cooking. the whole cooking thing sort of removes your focus from where you are, which doesn't happen if you just dip your hand into your snack bag while staring at the sunset.

yup, good fun indeed... i thought for awhile that I **had** been raptured. a few choice pix are here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1871377198514.101442.1663655888&l=ac59253b80