California
On the 21st of July a milestone was passed by Renata. By crossing the
Colombia River she left Washington and entered Oregon. In less than three
weeks she has managed to paddle some of the most difficult part of the
west coast.
Oregon welcomed her with perfect weather conditions, but that only
stayed for a day. Some unusual winds from the south made it very hard to
paddle. After four hours of intensive paddling she had not come more than
16 kilometers. She gave up and pulled in to Canon Beach.
Renata decided to stay at Canon beach during the coming day, while she
was expecting a visit from a close friend and photographer from Seattle.
After making some good photo shootings she entered the water again in the
afternoon, but now with winds from the north which gave her a good speed.
Even if the weather conditions still not were very good on the 29th,
Renata wanted to get out on the water again after two days of rest. After
some hours the wind was picking up. The waves were smashing into the kayak
one after another and suddenly boom and she went over. It was just to
paddle up on the shore and pump out all the water. When she was out again
a new wave braked over her. While she discovered that her spray skirt had
come off a second wave filled the kayak with water, Renata lost the
balance and went in again. After this small adventure she decided to
continue with inlines.
Renata continued on inlines during the coming days and even by foot due
to the heavy traffic and the hills. During these days more and more people
stopped her to take photos and to discuss the journey. The funniest part
of this trip on the road was the passing of a tunnel. Before entering the
tunnel bikers have to push a button to activate flashing red lights to
warn cars that there are bicyclists in the tunnel. Done that she start to
walk in the tunnel, but the traffic were right behind her so she started
to run. Running uphill in a tunnel with a kayak behind her must have been
a sight.
After two days on the sea, the wind was to hard so it had to be on the
road again. Around 8pm, with 7 kilometers left to Port Oxford, the trailer
broke in half in the front. The last kilometers had to be to pull the
kayak by hand.
The hard work was compensated with a hot shower and a night at small motel.
Renata was glad that she decided to make the trailer in steal, so it would
not be any problem to fix it.
The trailer was fixed at the only garage workshop in Port Orford and it
looked great, so the adventure could continue.
Time for California! On the 7th of August Renata arrive to in Crescent
City after a good day of paddling. There had been a small notice in the
paper, so when she passed a few fishing boats earlier that day they asked
if she was the girl that was paddling the west coast. More and more people
have heard about the expedition and approach her along the way.
On the 12th Renata rounded Cape Mendocino after a lot of trouble of
leaving the beach. She had camped just a few kilometers north the cape on
a good spot, but when she should continue on the 12th she realized that
the shore was very steep down to the edge of the ocean and that the 5-6
feet swells were breaking where the ocean and the beach met. After a
couple of trials she decided to walk one kilometer to a spot that was not
that steep and it worked.
On the 18th she ended up in Anchor Bay campsite and she is getting
closer to San Francisco, where she will make a little detour under the
Golden Gate Bridge.
We look forward to see the pictures from this detour!
SportsGearGuide.com - Patrik Nilsson
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