Folding the Firefly Kayak

This is for my friend that bought the Firefly (Advanced Elements) Kayak.

Here are the steps in the process for putting the Firefly away in the bag.

Starting with the blown up Firefly.

And just so you know it is yours...

1. Here it is flat (and dry)

2. Fold one side in.

3. Fold the other side in.

4. Fold the front back one time at about the seam meld.

5. Fold the front back one more time to where the 'tracker thing' is located.

6. Fold the back inward.

7. Check it by flipping it over.

8. Should be ready to slip into the carrying bag.

9. After it is in the bag, slip in the air pump and the seating and other stuff you want to place in there.

Now put it in the car between the seats....or in the storage bay....or take it out and put it on the water!!!

Have fun sharing it and thanks for leading to spending my money on a different unit! You my friend are theWoman!

Toketee Falls

During our tour of OR and on the way to a gathering of WomenRVers, I refer to as Sistahs, we stopped for a couple of nights at Toketee Falls National Forest campground. It is a nice campground and has access to a small lake for kayaking or canoeing and interesting areas around it for sight seeing.

We made the jaunt over to Toketee Falls, the actual falls. One of the interesting thing in the parking lot was this Redwood "pipe" that carries water, still yet today. It has a lot of holes that leak water and consequently there are many things growing on and beneath it.

A little explanation to help understand the area.

Nice path and not too strenuous, but no where handicapped accessible as they stated. Very large trees on the way, some down many still upright.

Now don't you think that there should be an American Dipper, dipping up and down in this river? Well not here, but one morning Liz and Thistle got that life bird on the river closer to the campground.

Don't want to see the dipper at this water pothole.

On the trail this great butt shot of Liz. The rocks and trees were amazing to see on this trail. It was really a short trail though it did have some pretty awesome feet elevation raise.

Then the Falls itself. Quite awesome!

Great little hike for a beautiful view. Was hot there that day and I was a happy camper...no flannel shirt or long legged pants!

The next day we took to the water. So these pics were taken with my little water-proof camera. The water where we put in was not as clear as it was out in the river flow....by a long shot. However, we saw otters there the day before, not today. 

Just viewing here. You can see how calm and reflect the water was for us.

On the way back to take out we saw this Bald Eagle at a distance. But great viewing it.

Great end to a great day.

Is she really going to do it?

Well, she is going to try to get the blog going again. Since 2012 my life has kind of been in a time warp. Lots of things happened in my life. I am doing great and am planning to tour the Western US with my friend Liz Crussell.

Liz and I did make a quick trip to the Texas Big Bend National Park in early December of 2013. We had a great time, saw lots of things, and did lots of things. We had a great time. But….is there one of these things all the time? When we drove out of the National Park, we drove right into a nice little winter ice storm. We decided we should fill up with gas before we went to the RV Park because in those kind of storms you just never know if the power lines will drop and you need your genny! I stepped out of the RV, on to the steps and slipped right down on my behind. Never occurred to be that the steps would be iced over even though we were driving in rain and freezing rain. Filled up and made for the park. We ended up iced in for several days. I headed back to San Antonio area for Christmas and then spent two months down in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg.

Had a great two months visiting with friends and family came down to bird. My friend Colleen came down for two weeks. So we RVing sistahs had a grand time.

I left for New Mexico/Arizona to meet up with Liz, then go see my cardiologist, and then get back with Liz for site seeing.  It has been a lot of fun. Looking forward to seeing things I did not take the time to see when I lived in New Mexico and Arizona. Hope to meet up with some RVing sistahs too.

Hope you have been doing well and hanging tight.

Birds and Critters that I managed to shoot

Lake Louise - WOW

To start the day, it was once again a sunny, blue sky, kind of day. We weren't the first one out of the campground as the 'little Road Trek" that was parked in the big pull thru was the first in our loop to leave.

We drove down into Lake Louise town and passed right on up to the Lake and Lodge. What a beautiful place! I think I have used that adjective quite a lot. The building are impressive.

The cabin with kayaks. Note that there is frost on both the roof and the bottoms of the kayaks!

 

Lake is really good looking! This is first thing in the morning.

The lake a little bit later in the day.

Surrounding the lake is very tall conifirs. This makes a great frame for the Lake.

Close up of the glacier.

We decided to do breakfast at the Lodge.

We left Lake Louise and went to the Crystal Mountain Campground, parked and got set up and then we headed to Banff. The drive to the campground was picturesque. See the Banff blog for that trip.