Building Kayak Racks

 

After a lot of talking and planning and looking on the internet for inspiration we came up with the plans for our rolling kayak rack.  Eric came down for moral support and assistance.

 

 

Luckily, dad came and provided expertise on the project.  We used 2x6 boards for the base and lagged them together.  We used 2x4 cut to almost the height of the garage for the risers.  We used wooden dowels near the top to provide more stability and would work to hold my watermelon (my green kayak).  The rack is 8 feet long and my watermelon is only 6 feet so we have an extra dowel on the opposite end to hang our life jackets.  On one side to provide both stability and extra storage for dry bags and such we put a peg board. The weather was too humid yesterday to paint it but we have some nice bright blue to paint the rack soon.  It has giant 6 inch casters on it so we can just roll it in and out of the garage.

 

We used nylon rope with washers to make the individual racks and strung a piece of PVC pipe on each one to help the boats roll in and out.  It really worked like a charm!

 

 

 

 

The almost finished project.  Still needs a coat of paint but already providing us the storage we wanted and it also makes it so easy for us to pick and choose which boats we want to take out without having to pull all them out and the gear will no longer be stacked inside the boats making it harder to access.

Ocmulgee (Pope's Ferry to Waterworks Park)

 
Mom came up last weekend and brought Nico for a kayak trip.

 

We got up, had breakfast a la Eric, and loaded the vehicles.  Off we went to drop the last vehicle at Waterworks park.  We put in at Pope's Ferry, the river was listed at 4.5' at Dame's Ferry and around 1500cfs.  The run started out pretty good, but we quickly started running into shoals which became the story of the day. 

 

 
 We stopped less than an hour in when we found a swimming hole.  What a great way to cool off!

 

 

We have piece by piece completed the length of the Ocmulgee from Jackson to Macon.

 

 
Check out this strange flower we found on the island where we stopped to swim.

 
What we thought would be a 3-4 hour trip kept getting longer and longer, eventually ending at 7 hours.  What took the most time was Clay and Eric and mom getting stuck on rock after rock.  Mom and Eric dumped out at one point, losing her glasses and her chewbacca shirt.   Even though it was a long stretch it was one of the prettiest parts of the river.  I would like to do it again, but Clay isn't so sure.  He thinks maybe if the river was another 1.5 feet higher.

 
There were beautiful rocky outcroppings and sections with homes on the banks which provided some eye candy.

 
By the time we got finished we were so hungry we each devoured Five Guys burgers and fries in record breaking time.  

 

Next Leg on Ocmulgee

 

We completed the next leg of our Ocmulgee adventures this weekend, the stretch from Juliette Dam to Pope's Ferry (9.8 river miles).  The water was still pretty high from all the recent rain (about 4.5-5 ft at Dames and CFS of around 2500) per my river data app.  The weather was nice, it was warm 85 degrees or so but fairly cloudy, no rain, and not terribly humid.  About 45 minutes into there is an old rusted building on river right that looks like it might have to do with waterworks or something of that sort.  There were a bunch of guys that had climbed up on it and were jumping off.  We watched a few jumping while we made our way by.

 

Lauren and I shared the new pink sit on top kayak.  Those seats on that boat are great!  They come up higher on your back and you sit on part of it which keeps it still.

 

There are shoals at the put in right below Juliette Dam and made for a fun minute or so of paddling right when we got in.  Then it calmed down a lot and most of the river was smooth paddling like above.  About every half mile or so there were shoals but the water level was high enough that our boats only got hung up once or twice.  The problem we ran into was finding somewhere to stop.  There are many residences along this stretch and other than their private ramps the banks were too steep for stopping.  We did find a rocky outcropping on river left about 2.5 hours into the paddle that we were able to pull into and hop out for lunch.  

We had a surprise visitor there however.  When I was pulling Clay and his boat further in on the rocks something slithered by my foot in the water.  I screamed, Lauren screamed and jumped way up on a rock, and Clay laughed.  It was a little snake, maybe 2-2.5 feet long, but I HATE a snake in the water!  

I found this picture on Auburn University's Website and it appears to be the type of snake we saw.  A banded water snake is what they call it.

 

 Further downstream we saw the high bridge (the only bridge on this stretch) that marked Dames Ferry.  We knew from driving over this bridge many times in the past that there was a drop and a lot of shoals here.  The concerning part in this area is that above the drop there were large old metal rods sticking up out of the water, I am assuming they were part of an old bridge here.  We made it down the rocky drop without incident and it ended up being a fun little run.  Clay made it down ok but could get around or over a fallen tree on the route he had chosen.  We paddled back upstream to where he was and found this awesome little spot below.  We swam there and enjoyed a little shade before heading out for the last little bit of the trip.

 

 

 This area was actually about waist deep, Clay was sitting on the rocks and letting the waterfall cascade on him.  I sat up on the rock next to him for a while and the water felt great!   It was about another hour to the take out at Pope's ferry.  The entire trip took us 6.5 hours, this included our 30-45 minute stop for lunch and another 45-1 hour for swimming.  We also leisurely paddled or just let the current move us for most of the trip.

 

Lily Pad on the Ocmulgee

 

We took Lily on the river today for her first kayak trip.  We had no idea what to expect and we were surprised at how she behaved.  She was very excited looking at the water while we prepared.

 
"Can we go?  Can we go?"

 
I carefully packed my iphone in a ziplock bag that I kept in the dry box, so most of the pictures I got were fuzzy from the bag to be safe.  Lily did not like that Clay and I were in separate boats, she whined every time the boats would get more than a few feet apart.  Then she would dive in start swimming to the other boat.  She LOVED swimming!  She loved it so much that sometimes she would dive into the water and swim ahead of the boats just swimming and swimming.  

 
We had decided to run a section of the Ocmulgee that we had already kayaked so we knew what to expect.  Killer went with us last October on this same stretch.  We put in at Hwy 83 and took out at Juliette Dam.  The river was really high today after a week of on/off rain and rain last night too.  The height listed at Dames Ferry was 5.7ft and the cubic ft/second was up to about 6,000.   Lily did escape one time conveniently onto the island we are planning on camping on soon.  She got tangled in some thorns but I got her loose and off the island and back in the boat, much to her chagrin.

 

Lily finally settled down in Clay's boat on the last 3/4 mile or so of the total 4.2 mile stretch.  Prior to this calmness the only time she sat still is when I had a slim Jim and pack of peanuts open and she sat in front of me on the boat staring me down.

Botanical Gardens

 

Clay and I went to Atlanta to meet up with Lindsey to go to the botanical gardens.  It was a perfect day for being outside.

 

 The giant plant sculptures throughout the gardens were amazing.  They were in the process of making a huge cobra that will eventually coil over the walkway but it was only partially finished.

 

 The tulips were still in bloom and gorgeous!

 

The fishes fountain rotated on a platform.

 

There were several environments inside.  The plant above has its roots dangling in the air and somehow absorbs its nutrients from the air.

 

 

 

 

 

Clay and Lindsey took the time to smell the flowers.  

We were all watching a big bullfrog in the pond and Lindsey asked me if I thought it was moving toward us.  It started ribbiting and she jumped behind me all scared.  I tried to get the frog all blown up and making noise on video but he wouldn't perform for the camera.

 

 
After a beautiful day at the Gardens we all went to eat at R Thomas.  Delicious food!  We made a pit stop and got another sit on top kayak on the way home.  Woohoo, can't wait to get out on the water!

Where have I been

 

The last week and a half has been very busy, plus my laptop went on the fritz so I have been a little absent in the blogosphere.   Clay and I attended another Yelp elite event at Lime Fresh in Atlanta.  We had a good time and visited with 2 other Yelping couples.  The spread there was great!  Guac, salsa bar, tacos, burritos, key lime pie, sangria, and margaritas for free.  We also spent some time just running around ATL on last Saturday.  We hit up Petsmart and visited with the humane society puppies and got them some chew toys, then we were going to go back to the Book House Pub, but sadly we were too early and they weren't open yet.  Next, we found ourselves in Inman Park and decided to hit up Fritti, which we had seen before when going to Dad's garage theater but never tried.  We have been missing out, what a fantastic meal.  We ate out on the patio and didn't even mind the heat because the food was that good!  We started with calamari which was crisp and not chewy and sausage risotto balls that were innovative and delicious!  We shared a pizza with several cheeses, ham, artichokes, and olives.  Yummy!  1 pizza was 8 decently sized slices, so it was perfect for sharing.  It was so warm that we couldn't turn up the opportunity for gelato and we were very glad we didn't.  The pistachio was the most flavorful that I have ever had and the lime-raspberry was sweet and tangy and so refreshing. 

 

We decided that evening that we would come back on Friday for a Braves baseball game and headed south to go pick me out a kayak.  I tried the one that I thought would be my favorite but the foot pegs pushed in on my ankles and were very uncomfortable so I tried on the small and cheapest *yay* just for giggles and it was so much more comfortable and it was super light.  I can actually pick it up over my head to carry it.  Plus, it is green and looks like a watermelon.  We strapped that baby to the roof and headed home.  I spent the week working and hanging out with Stacie.  It was Claire's last week in Georgia so we had a little festivity for her at work and then I went out to eat with her and Bekie on evening.  

So, when we made our plans last week to go to the Braves game little did we know we were going to be in the midst of a heat wave, but we are hard core so off we went Friday into the 100+ degree temps to cheer on the Braves.

 

We arrived and met Eric and bought our tickets *cheap nosebleeders* and headed up into the rafters of the stadium.  Profusely sweating but still having a good time we proceeded to watch the Braves get their asses handed to them until the 7th inning when they got 4 runs to tie it up.  Unfortunately the Nationals brought scored again and the Braves weren't able to come back.  We all had a good time and enjoyed ourselves and it wasn't that bad considering the scorching temps.

 

After the game I was a bit peckish so we were trying to decide on somewhere to go eat and since we attempted to go to the Book House Pub the other day and they are open until 0200 we headed over there.  We encountered a sketchy parking situation but managed to get in and get a table.  The vibe was different than when we were there at dinner time but other than having to yell at tablemates to be heard it was a nice time.  Our waitress even scrounged up some house made chips for us even thought the kitchen was closed.  I enjoyed a spicy bloody Mary while Clay and Eric tried a few beers.  Clay was disappointed that they didn't have the banana nut bread beer that he enjoyed so much the last time we were there but found a new favorite, the watermelon beer.  We tortured my sister with pics of this beer because I remembered her Facebook post from earlier in the week lamenting her lack of access to said beer.  We were still munchy when we left, the chips didn't quite count as dinner, so we hit up the Zesto close by for our first experience there, then we headed home, surprising Killer at about 0300.

 

Today was even hotter and Clay attempted to talk me into doing yardwork, haha haha.  Needless to say that didn't get done.  Tomorrow is supposed to be around 104 but our crazy selves are heading out for a kayak excursion on the Ocmulgee.  We are going to put in at Lloyd Shoals Dam and take out at Wise Creek.  We are taking lots of water and hoping that the whole river hasn't evaporated or we will be miserably portaging a whole lot.  This run is supposed to take about 3 hours, I am betting on more like 5-6 counting a picnic lunch for us.  We shall see!  Me and my watermelon mobile will be hitting the water for the first time.