What's In Store For '07
As you may have noticed (or not) I have not been keeping up with the blog very well. That doesn't mean there hasn't been anything going on. On the contrary, Mrs. Yak and I have been hitting trails and doing some light travelling in the last few months and making plans for the upcoming year. 2007 looks really exciting around the River Yak compound.
The most exciting trip we are planning at the moment is a road trip to Ocracoke Island, the North Carolina area of the Outer Banks where the infamous Blackbeard made his last stand and lost his head. It all started with a trip planned to the island for a few days to get away and go to the beach. Then one day an idea popped into my head while on the phone with Mrs. Yak. "What do you think about camping in Ocracoke rather than getting a hotel room?" I said to her rather hesitantly. To my relief she became very excited about the prospect of camping and we quickly dove head first into figuring out what we would need to make it happen. Before we got off the phone she had found three good campsites and we eagerly agreed on one. We have to wait until the site opens in March before we can make our reservations so we started looking for a tent.
Since we are car camping and not backpacking we are not worried about the weight of the tent, but room. Because we plan on spending about as much time in the tent as we would in a hotel room, we decided a three or four person tent would fit our needs better than a practical two person tent. After we got off the phone I began searching for tents and found "The One." A three person, three season tent called the Mutha Hubba (actual name). Mrs. Yak fell in love with it as quickly as I did and the decision was made.
Next on the agenda is meals. Are we going to eat out or make our meals at the camp site? Being budgetly challenged, we decided to eat out as little as possible. This will require a camp stove, a viable little gadget that we are still searching for. We have some models in mind, and being that cook stoves are comparatively inexpensive (compared to the tent) we have pushed this to the back burner (ha ha, get it?) and will worry about it later on.
Since this is a low budget trip we have decided to get cheap sleeping bags from a box retailer as opposed to expensive bags from an outfitter such as The North Face or Patagonia. From our research into this matter we have found no important differences between a $30 sleeping bag from Target and a $200 sleeping bag from REI. We are camping in the Outer Banks in August, not competing in the Iditorod.
The tent will cost as much as a hotel room, but as you will see in a bit, this is not the only camping trip we are planning this year. Therefor, the cost of the tent will be justified by the time we get to Ocracoke and we can spend the savings over a hotel room on Blackbeard paraphernalia. I can't wait to get a Blackbeard sticker for the kayak!
Before the Ocracoke trip, my wife will be taking an Independent Study class at school which will require us to hike and camp in the backwoods of Shenandoah National Forest. That trip should yield some great photos and stories for you to view here.
The one trip we are taking this year that does not include camping is for my brother's wedding in September. It seems we can't do anything without being in the water or the woods anymore, so we had to come up with something to make our trip to Weatherford worthwhile. Not that seeing my brother get married isn't worthwhile, but Mrs. Yak and I aren't happy with going anywhere unless we can get wet or muddy. There aren't any "real" hiking trails around Weatherford, so we have decided to rent a canoe at Possum Kingdom Lake and paddle around for a day of bird watching and turtle gazing. I mentioned this to my brother to see if he would like to go, but he didn't seem interested. At all. He did, however, express an interest in going to Six Flags to ride roller coasters with us. I guess canoeing on a lake isn't as thrilling as roller coasters.
About a month ago, Mrs. Yak and I set out on the Rivanna River Trail that begins not far from our house. The trail is planned to circumvent Charlottesville, but has yet to be completed. We planned on taking lots of pictures and posting the hike on here, but in usual Riveryak fashion, I forgot the camera. We walked the paved part of the trail that we have walked countless times before, waving and saying hi to people we met and enjoying an unseasonably warm day.
Just before the pavement ended, we encountered a thick bamboo grove. Mrs. Yak could not resist the temptation to go into the bamboo and hide from people as they walked by, just a few yards away. I didn't think we would be able to get into the bamboo, but somehow she found a little path inside there that was just enough for us pass. My backpack kept hanging up on the large stems and they would shake violently as I pathetically tried to free myself. If nobody could see us, the shaking bamboo would surely spark their interest as to what kind of animal was lurking in the dark thicket. We hunkered down as a family with several small children passed slowly by on bicycles. Nobody saw us, but then again, I doubt anybody was looking. A few more people went by unaware we were watching them stealthily from the bamboo. She found a way to get deeper into the bamboo so I followed as she squeezed through the tightly woven stalks. The bamboo would shake and rattle noisily as my pack kept snagging and holding me back. We would have been very covert had it not been for all the bamboo.
The bamboo parted on the river bank and I was able to walk upright and more stealthily, even though we had lost the cover of the bamboo. We found a bench on the river bank and sat there for a little bit with the bamboo behind us and the lazy river in front of us. Small children had now found our new hiding place. One of them was particularly observant as he called out to the others, "Hey! There are some people over here in the bamboo!" We moved around to keep them looking. The others, less observant, never found us as we crept back through the bamboo. Even with my pack shaking the hell out of the bamboo as I tried to squeeze it through, the kids didn't find us.
We emerged from the bamboo back onto the paved portion of the trail listening to the kids inside still trying to find us. "They were right here!" Mr. Observant would holler to his disbelieving friends. We got the best of them. He never should have opened his mouth. Now he looks stupid.
The pavement finally ended as we stepped onto raw trail. There weren't any people on this portion and, had we not known better, would have sworn we were out in the woods somewhere and not within 100 yards of a neighborhood with busy streets. The trail followed the river for a little way then diverted up a steep hill and onto a road. Slightly bewildered by this, we followed little placards that were tagged to light poles with arrows on which road to take. After about twenty minutes we found were the trail left the street and headed back into the woods.
The trail took us down a slight embankment to a small stream. From here the trail split and crossed the stream or kept going in the direction we were headed. We opted to not cross and continued in the direction we knew would eventually take us to one of the busiest roads in Charlottesville.
When Mrs. Yak hikes, she likes to stop and smell all the flowers and turn over all the rocks to see what may be living underneath. Most of the time I don't mind this because she is very good at telling me about the flowers and what their names are. Usually she finds some sort of wildlife living under the rocks, and is always equally impressed by each find, even if it's a colony of ants. But at this moment it was getting dark and neither of us knew how much further we had to go before reaching the road we wanted. And doubling back to where our car was parked was not an option because neither of us likes to see what we have already seen.
I urged her on, trying to be polite and compassionate about her needs to smell the moss on the trees and turn over rocks, even the ones she had to dig up in order to flip. She understood time was running out but her curiosity as to what might lie beneath that rock and that rock got the best of her. When it finally became too dark for her to see under the rocks she let me know that my constant preening about the time was OK and she wouldn't turn over any more.
At one point a nicely built, well planned boardwalk had been constructed over a particularly wet section of the trail. Along this was some more bamboo that Mrs. Yak absolutely had to go into. I tried to wait patiently as she disappeared into the dense bamboo, but the thought of werewolves and anything else evil that could be lurking in there raised the hair on the back of my neck. Hiking in the dark is OK, but the prospect of hiking in the dark next to bamboo that she had disappeared into completely frightened me. If I couldn't see her with her brightly colored clothes, how the hell was I going to see a werewolf in there?
To my relief she emerged from the dark abyss and we continued on the boards until we reached a set of stairs that led up to a road. It wasn't the road we wanted so we continued down the other side and discovered a post with a stash of trail maps. In the dim light we studied the map and figured out where we were and how much further we had to go.
The sun did not wait on us and the trail grew completely dark before we reached our mark. When we finally did, we found that the trail does not lead up to the road. Instead, we had to cross under it before going up. It was pitch black under the bridge and large boulders had been dumped down there to prevent erosion. We stumbled our way through, praying there was not an escaped criminal hiding in the darkness. Because we are generally lucky people, we did not encounter werewolves or escaped convicts. Now the hard part: getting back to our car without getting run over.
We walked the familiar roads of Charlottesville back to the park where we had left our car (passing our house on the way). About halfway back, I remembered the city closes the gates at all the parks at sunset. We trudged on in the ever cooling night hoping to find open gates.
Indeed the gates were open, but once in the park the truly terrifying moment of our hike started. We couldn't see our hands in front of our faces so we cautiously and quietly crept through the parking lot listening with all our might for any little noise that hinted danger. From the trees just beyond our car came an unnaturally loud "CRACK" that sounded like a blunt object striking somebodies head. We stopped and looked at each other holding our breath trying not to make any sounds. Again, "CRACK!" We started walking briskly towards the car. I dug in my pocket for the keys. Before reaching the car, it happened again. I unlocked her door then quickly and as quietly as I could crept around the front of the car to keep from turning my back on the source of the sound. One more time, "CRACK!" I grasped the keys tightly to keep from dropping them. Mrs. Yak unlocked my door as I approached it. I quickly climbed in, locked the door and drove the hell out of there.
A few days later we realized we had a three day weekend when neither of us was doing anything, so we decided to go somewhere for the weekend. I am always looking at boattrader.com and am always seeing boats for sale in a small town on the Chesapeake called Deltaville. A couple of times I have looked up the town to see what it's like and always found neat little things about it. The towns website makes it look like a quaint little Victorian village on the Chesapeake bay. Not long after we decided to go, I received an invitation in the mail from a yacht brokerage in Deltaville to get into a boat show in Richmond for half price. So we decided to go to the boat show, then head down to Deltaville and check it out.
Mrs. Yak found a nice little hotel in town and a hiking trail not too far away. Being that we were going in the winter and the website said the hotel was open year round, we didn't make any phone calls. We planned on getting there then checking into the hotel if we decided to stay.
The boat show had some interesting kayak displays and a sailboat that I have been wanting to see. It was a small show, so we only stayed for about an hour then headed to the Bay. It was dark when we arrived in Deltaville, so we drove around for a little bit and found all the places we would like to visit the following day. Eventually we stumbled upon the hotel we read about on the Internet. We drove down an ill-kept road and turned into the dirt parking lot of the hotel. To our dismay every door was open to the rooms and mattresses sat outside propped against the wall. Hmmm.
Someone was walking around on the second floor balcony where the mattresses were propped. We sat in the parking lot for a little bit then decided to keep driving for a little longer before checking in. We drove past the hotel and found several marina's along with the yacht broker that sent me the half off deal for the show.
It was getting late so we decided to go back to the hotel. The lights were all still on, but we stopped on the side of the road before pulling into the parking lot. Mrs. Yak called the number on the sign to see if they had any rooms. She talked to somebody for a little bit before hanging up and informed me to keep driving. When she asked if any rooms were available, the person on the phone said he would have to check. I guess while she was on hold, Mrs. Yak made the decision for the person and decided they didn't have anything. I would have thought they could have poked their little head out the office and noticed there weren't mattresses on the beds and said no, but evidently it took a little more reckoning then that.
We drove back into town and found a gas station. While Mrs. Yak went inside to find a phone book I took the opportunity to top off the gas tank, just in case. She hadn't come out when I finished so I went inside and asked if they had a restroom. I was directed to the side of the building where a Porta-Potty stood. No problem, I thought to myself, until the door shut and I realized Porta-Potties do not come equipped with the necessary lighting required to see what you are doing. And the latch had been taken off the door. After peeing in what I figured to be the right place, but could have been the floor, I walked out of the potty checking the bottom of my shoes.
Mrs. Yak had found a hotel in Gloucester and acquired directions. After figuring out we were going the wrong direction and two more phone calls to the new hotel, we found our bed for the night and settled in. I grabbed the phone book and dialed a couple of pizza places because we didn't feel like going back out. Nobody delivered to that area of the county. So we loaded back into the car and found a Ruby Tuesdays where we waited outside for about 30 minutes for a table.
The next day we left the hotel early and headed for the hiking trail Mrs. Yak had found in one of our hiking books. The trail was in a state park with lovely facilities that put the gas station Porta-Potty to shame. We hiked to a bird watching blind, but the sun was reflecting brightly off the water, effectively camouflaging all the birds. So we continued on. After taking a short cut that turned out to take us back to where we started, just a little wetter, we hiked out to a point and picnicked with delicious food packed by Mrs. Yak. Another perk to hiking with her, she knows how to pack good food that fits in a backpack.
We got back to the car, feet wet and shoes soaked from our scenic short cut, washed up in the tidy facilities, then headed back to Charlottesville with more memories and large grins. Just no pictures because I forgot the camera...again.
I have been kayaking, but nothing note-worthy. Mrs. Yak wants to hike more and we are looking to get her a kayak. 2007 appears to shaping really well and we both look forward to an exciting year in the outdoors together.
Fair winds and following seas...
