An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

A number of years ago I used to organize a kayak outing the weekend of my birthday (which is also the weekend before Thanksgiving). That's usually just about the tail end of sane kayaking season. At that point it's cold enough that dry suits are needed, but not so cold as to chill you to the bone. Looking back on in the archives of this blog, the trip seems to have fallen by the wayside (or at least wasn't written about) after 2012 . Well, I started this year having to revive myself, so I figure why not revive a kayaking ritual as well? Six paddlers (Al L., Susan G., Jim G., Larry I., Rob P. and I) met at the traditional location, Mason Neck. It wasn't a super-cold day, but high winds were in the forecast, just like 2008's paddle . So, as we have done in the past on windy days, instead of heading out into the river we stayed in the more protected waters of Belmont Bay and the Occoquan River. We kayaked up the river as far as Occoquan Regional Park, where there...

Veteran's Day weekend initially shaped up to be a pretty bad one. I had been planning to go on the Chesapeake Paddler's Association Chickahominy trip but, truth be told, I had a mixture of eager anticipation and dread about the trip. Anticipation becuase it's always a big crowd and therefore a good time; dread because it's always cold, and I don't like cold. This year was promising an extra-freezing experience, with lows in the 20's. I had reserved an electric site and so I figured I could tough out the nights with the aid of an electric blanket, but I really wasn't looking forward to being cold all weekend. The forecast was unpleasant enough that a hardier camper than I had arranged to stay at Cat's vacant apartment in Richmond on Friday to avoid the coldest night and had gotten a few others, including me, invited as well. As an aside, Cat's condo is in a building that was originally built as a synagogue, and so I had my jokes at the ready. "We...

Coffeeneuring Ride #5: FCC on Veterans' Day Where: Java Shack 2507 Franklin Rd, Arlington, VA and Northside Social  3211 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA Date: Friday 11/11/17 Beverage: Decaf skim latte from Northside, maple muffin from Java Shack.  Total mileage: 9.5 Miles Details: Regular readers know that there are morning coffee meetups around DC pretty much every weekday. I decided to stop by the Friday Coffee Club at Java Shack in the Courthouse neighborhood of Arlington. It being a holiday, they apparently decided to open later than usual. Another cyclist regular and I got there at 7 to find the door locked. A few minutes later the pastry delivery guy arrived and we followed him inside, where we discovered that they hadn't even started brewing coffee yet - it was going to be a while before we would be served there. The shop owner, feeling bad, gave us each a muffin gratis. We hopped back on our bikes and rode over to Northside Social, which was open as usual....

Someone who saw my Accordioneur patch in a photo in the FB Coffeeneuring group asked whether biking with an accordion was even possible and so I decided to document a combined accordioneuring / coffeeneuring ride. Here is my full rig. The accordion is in the backback, the french press is in a water bottle cage, and the stove is in the trunk bag. Fingerless gloves are recommended for maximum playing dexterity, though lightweight glove liners can be worn it needed. Many accordionists advise against high visibility clothing since it makes you an easier target, but since there is only infrequently vehicular traffic on the W&OD I figured it was safe to wear the yellow jacket. Having arrived at my "Coffee Outdoors" location (no coffee shop would allow me in with an accordion), I proceed to heat the water. As an accordionist it is important to handle the flame yourself since your "friends" will tend to light the wrong thing on fire. Accordionati Rule ...

Last year I explained that the cycling world has a lot of fun (or gimmicky, depending on your mindset) little challenges, one of which is Coffeeneuring. Promoted by the Chasing Mailboxes cycling blog, is a "relaxed cycling endeavor" requiring you to take seven rides to seven different places to get coffee over the course of about seven weeks. I got jazzed about it last year. Not so much this year. In fact, I thought it was over November 7th, but when I realized the deadline was November 19th, I got a little more motivated and may yet make the seven rides. Here's what I've done so far: Coffeeneuring Ride #1: Rare Bird, Falls Church Where: Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St., Falls Church, VA Date: Saturday 10/14/17 Beverage: Decaf skim latte Details: While the cat is away, the mice will bike rather than drive to the farmers' market. Valerie had things to do so we skipped our usual Saturday morning "date" at the Falls Church Farmer's M...

This has been an odd year for exercise, what with my surgery interrupting just about all activity just as springtime was getting going. I haven't been on an organized CPA paddling trip all year, and so when I packed my car and headed for the put-in I had this weird feeling like when you visit the neighborhood where you grew up - I thought, "This is something I used to do." That little bit of dissociation aside, I made it to the put-in with no issues. This is the first time I've been on a trip with this trip leader and I quickly learned that he has a loose style of trip leading. He let me join last-minue (that's good) but while he announced that he was going to do a pre-trip briefing he never wound up doing one, and we made it only part-way around group introductions before that effort fell apart. So, I got on the water having no idea where we were going or how long we were going to be out for other than the description on Meetup of "over ten miles". ...

We have always loved a fall trip to pick apples. In fact, just today while looking through some old photos I found pictures of us picking apples with my friend Charles back in 1988. I didn't scan the pictures - but trust that I had enormous 1980's glasses and a pitiful mustache. I also found some pictures of us with Teddy & David on an apple-picking trip, probably in the early 2000's. With some beautiful fall weather on tap (can we still say "Indian Summer"?) Valerie and I headed out to Markham, VA to pick some apples at Stribling Orchard. This was a great year for apples. We've been going to the Markham orchards for years and I've never seen the trees bursting with beautiful, juicy apples the way they were this year. We picked to our hearts content until our bags were straining with a bushel full of apples. When we were paying, Valerie chatted with one of the women working the cash registers and, through that amazing ability to instantly create ...

Thursday 9/14 With only two days left of paddling, we decided to do another long outing: a trip through the Navy Islands and Raft Narrows to the Thousand Islands Bridge. This was another nice trip even though the outbound portion was my least favorite bit of paddling on the trip. Knowing that this was going to be another trip with long miles and strong currents, the night before the trip we had a group discussion. Since I was a little slower than the rest of the group, to some extent all week I had felt like when we were on the water I had to just paddle, paddle, paddle to keep up with the group. No stopping to catch my breath or take photos. Limited quick sips of water and no snack breaks. And still, I always felt a half step or so behind the group. I asked if we could take breaks every once in a while. Likewise, Rob requested that we stop occasionally so he could stretch his back. With two of the six of us requesting breaks, of course the response was that the remainder of the grou...

Monday, 9/11 Monday was going to be one of our long days - a paddle to Boldt Castle. This meant paddling the length of Grenadier Island and then island hopping to the castle on Heart Island, for a total of about fifteen miles round trip. Jen had really wanted to go to Boldt Castle, and I did too. There is family lore about a family vacation visit to Boldt Castle when I was young. As a child I had my share of irrational phobias. As the tale is told, I spent our entire time at Boldt Castle fretting about missing the boat back to the mainland and pleading to go "back to the boat dock" as soon as possible. As it happens, I recently had some old home movies digitized including, as it happens, footage from our trip to the Thousand Islands. In the film I appear to be having a perfectly fine time at the castle. I don't doubt that my fears of getting marooned there were real, but I suspect my insistence on waiting at the dock for the tour boat has been magnified over years of re...