Bagan

Bagan

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Seward, Splash Course & GeoDome


In Seward by 2:30pm on Thurs, went straight to Millers Landing for our required “splash course”. They taught us to self-rescue in case our kayak tips over. Therefore, we had to tip ourselves to demonstrate we can do it. This was the craziest thing I have ever done. The water is 40 deg; I dislike the cold, and have poor circulation on my hands and feet. I was completely shocked when we went over. Took time to breathe normally again and regroup. 

You have about 8 mins in this cold water before getting hyperthermia. Since I am sitting in the first seat of the double kayak, I have to wait for Mike to get in as I wrap my body to the front of the kayak to stabilize it for him to get in (sorry no pix). Thankfully, we passed on our first try. We kayaked back to shore, got clothes, and took a warm 4 min $2 shower. Amazingly, it was not as bad as I anticipated, but still shocking the very moment you hit the water and are stuck in a kayak. You have to find the rims to take off the spray shield, which holds you in the kayak.

When we told people about or self guided 2 night kayak trip, they gave us a crazy look and this is Mike’s first time kayaking! I arranged a couch surf that night; we met up w/ Nick and Jessica at a pub. They moved here from HI and are working on a fishing boat and tour boat. Fishing boat is a 14 hr. work day; poor Nick. People, here, have 90 days to make money for the year and heavily depends on tips. At the bar, we heard a tsunami siren, this is my first and it was not a drill. Some people left the bar; we with others waited for some more news. After about 10 mins they called it off. A town close by had a 7.2 earthquake.

Nick & Jessica are renting a geodome w/ no electricity, no running water, no bathroom or even outhouse. A guy from PA built it, made w/ metal frames and plastic around it. They have a wood-burning stove, but heat does not keep. I barely got sleep; we left at 4:30am for our kayak adventure. Wish I had more time there, as it has some good hikes w/ glacier views. It is very pretty w/ close mt views. Nick and Jessica live interesting lives and would have liked to talk to them some more too.

No photo album on this post.

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