bass
Right after that (around 11:30am) my drive failed. I had repaired it a few weeks back and I guess I did not tighten some of the bolts on the cable pulley system tight enough and they had worked loose while I was fighting to hold my position against the wind and current. My drive was useless.
While I tried to fiddle with it (not knowing it was useless to try yet) I drifted downstream even further. Between the wind and current I was moving over 2mph. I quickly realized it was a lost cause and stowed my drive. I picked up my paddle and started working my way back upstream into the teeth of the wind. There was really no place for me to pull over so all I could do was try my best to paddle the ~1.5 miles back to the ramp.
Well going into that wind was brutal. I dig each stroke with all my might just to make some progress. The best speed I could manage was around .6mph and when it gusted my GPS would show me that I was going 0mph (sometimes even going backwards). Being at stage 5 kidney failure my health is not the best to begin with and now I was facing what seemed like an impossible task and there was not another boat on the water. So I steeled my self and just kept grinding away. I could not stop for even a minute because if I did I would immediately start heading back downstream at 2mph. It was brutal. I was not sure I was going to make it back. I paddled for all I was worth while waves broke over the bow of my kayak.
Watching the shoreline just added to my despair because being out in the middle of the river I could not even tell I was making progress it was so slow. Finally I settled on not looking up and just watching the front of the kayak. I would only look up every 200 strokes. Doing that I could kind of tell I had moved a little bit upstream. That helped my confidence. The other thing that saved me as that at this time of the year the native Americans leave buoys out on the river for when they are allowed to run their nets. After an hour of paddling I was about 1/2 way back and had reached one of those buoys and tied up to it for a few minutes of rest. I ate a small snack, drank some of my drink, gave myself a pep talk and then got back to it.
The wind just remained brutal but I just kept digging for all I was worth. I was still not sure I was going to make it. My arms and core were now burning. I have very little energy reserves and I knew I was pushing my limits but I kept going. I had no choice. I was angling back towards the ramp and eventually I made it close enough to shore that I was over the weedbeds that grow to within a foot or so of the surface. At that point, even though I still had about 1/2 miles to go and I was really tired I was able to make better progress. The weeds both help cut the current and flatten the waves a bit. I was able to get my speed up to over 1mph plus being closer to shore made it easier to see my progress which was uplifting. It was still a battle but for the first time I knew I had a chance.
Finally after 2 hours and 15 minutes of paddling I made it back to the ramp. I almost cried I was so relieved. I really was not sure I was going to make it back for a lot of that trip. I had not good ideas on what to do. I periodically thought about dumping all my gear. I am sure that would have helped a lot, but I just could not bring myself to do it. I would guess I have a about 50 lbs of stuff and a lot of that stuff (all my rods, the net, the flag, my cart, my dry bag, etc were just catching the wind. I just could not bring myself to chuck that stuff in the river. In the end it obviously did work out but I am not sure if I have further damaged my health. I guess time will tell.
Anyway, thanks for reading that. It was tough writing this one up. So the fishing was good while it lasted. 13 bass with a lot of big fish but the kayak was not so good
Here is some video from the day. I did not include any of the slog back (I don't want to see that again and I am sure one one else does).
While I tried to fiddle with it (not knowing it was useless to try yet) I drifted downstream even further. Between the wind and current I was moving over 2mph. I quickly realized it was a lost cause and stowed my drive. I picked up my paddle and started working my way back upstream into the teeth of the wind. There was really no place for me to pull over so all I could do was try my best to paddle the ~1.5 miles back to the ramp.
Well going into that wind was brutal. I dig each stroke with all my might just to make some progress. The best speed I could manage was around .6mph and when it gusted my GPS would show me that I was going 0mph (sometimes even going backwards). Being at stage 5 kidney failure my health is not the best to begin with and now I was facing what seemed like an impossible task and there was not another boat on the water. So I steeled my self and just kept grinding away. I could not stop for even a minute because if I did I would immediately start heading back downstream at 2mph. It was brutal. I was not sure I was going to make it back. I paddled for all I was worth while waves broke over the bow of my kayak.
Watching the shoreline just added to my despair because being out in the middle of the river I could not even tell I was making progress it was so slow. Finally I settled on not looking up and just watching the front of the kayak. I would only look up every 200 strokes. Doing that I could kind of tell I had moved a little bit upstream. That helped my confidence. The other thing that saved me as that at this time of the year the native Americans leave buoys out on the river for when they are allowed to run their nets. After an hour of paddling I was about 1/2 way back and had reached one of those buoys and tied up to it for a few minutes of rest. I ate a small snack, drank some of my drink, gave myself a pep talk and then got back to it.
The wind just remained brutal but I just kept digging for all I was worth. I was still not sure I was going to make it. My arms and core were now burning. I have very little energy reserves and I knew I was pushing my limits but I kept going. I had no choice. I was angling back towards the ramp and eventually I made it close enough to shore that I was over the weedbeds that grow to within a foot or so of the surface. At that point, even though I still had about 1/2 miles to go and I was really tired I was able to make better progress. The weeds both help cut the current and flatten the waves a bit. I was able to get my speed up to over 1mph plus being closer to shore made it easier to see my progress which was uplifting. It was still a battle but for the first time I knew I had a chance.
Finally after 2 hours and 15 minutes of paddling I made it back to the ramp. I almost cried I was so relieved. I really was not sure I was going to make it back for a lot of that trip. I had not good ideas on what to do. I periodically thought about dumping all my gear. I am sure that would have helped a lot, but I just could not bring myself to do it. I would guess I have a about 50 lbs of stuff and a lot of that stuff (all my rods, the net, the flag, my cart, my dry bag, etc were just catching the wind. I just could not bring myself to chuck that stuff in the river. In the end it obviously did work out but I am not sure if I have further damaged my health. I guess time will tell.
Anyway, thanks for reading that. It was tough writing this one up. So the fishing was good while it lasted. 13 bass with a lot of big fish but the kayak was not so good
Here is some video from the day. I did not include any of the slog back (I don't want to see that again and I am sure one one else does). 
