Kayaking in Nisqually Delta, and NWOC

Julia and I were married in late August 2010, and our wedding gift to one another was to purchase two 17′ Seda Ikkuma fiberglass sea kayaks. This is my biggest purchase on purely recreational equipment that I can recall, but we are both so passionate about the sport and start learning together, that we justified the purchase.

Of course, to go with the kayaks, we needed a roof rack. We purchased a Yakima roof rack system, and boy, am I impressed with it. It is easy on/easy off the car in no time, and is solid when attached. It came with all the straps required to transport two kayaks, and was generally reasonably priced. I highly recommend Yakima roof racks if you are looking.

Homemade kayak racks

The final piece was storage. When my parents were out in August, my dad and I (okay, mostly my dad) built a shelving unit between the house and shed to store them, which is working great.

This past weekend was our first real non-local-lake trip to put them to use, and we had a blast. The first chore of the day involved loading the kayaks on the car. We are still experimenting with the best way to do this, but we are getting faster and faster every time we do it. With the kayaks loaded, it was off to the Nisqually Delta, which is just south of Tacoma, WA.

Kayaking route in Nisqually Delta

The weather was absolutely perfect, with the seas calm and the sun beating down to create perfect air and water temperature. We launched the boats from Luhr beach without any trouble and paddled around Nisqually Reach for the 5.5 hours, with a lunch break. Along the way we saw multiple great blue herons, seals, many jellyfish including a fried egg jellyfish, starfish, sunfish, and a bunch of other wildlife. It was late September and we even had a chance to do some wading in the ocean with our new wetsuits! We explored Anderson Island quite a bit, but never did find the Washington Water Trails Association camp site that was advertised in our Cascadia Marine Trail Handbook. All in all, we did about 11 miles of paddling. My only regret is that we didn’t dump ourselves in the ocean to practice self and assisted rescues. Maybe next time.

Julia on her Kayak in Nisqually Delta

Kayaking is a great couples experience. It was something we could do together and something that we are learning together, and are both relatively at the same skill level. Although I am slightly quicker on the water than Julia, we enjoy experimenting and learning together.

I also wanted to plug the Northwest Outdoor Center (http://www.nwoc.com), or NWOC for short. NWOC is located on the west shores of Lake Union in downtown Seattle. This is the shop we bought our kayaks from, as well as the rest of our gear. They were GREAT to deal with. John, the head honcho, provided great customer service and even made two personal trips to our home in Snoqualmie to drop off some purchased gear. We really appreciated that. If you ever have an interest in obtaining any kayaking gear – used or new – definitely check these guys out. You won’t be sorry. Julia and I also took their Fundamentals of Sea Kayaking in summer 2009 and really enjoyed that as well. We plan to take more courses next year with them.

Looking for a new sport to take up, particularly as a couple? Check out kayaking when you get the chance.

James.

PS. Got a kayak, or simply a roof rack that you can strap a rental on to? You are more than welcome to join us on a day trip or camping trip should you have the means.