Clear Lake Area Paddling Series - CLAPS

Z.O.R.K.  Zombie Outbreak Response Kayak and my GeoJeepMobile

My Bride and I set out this morning on our first CLAPS geocaches.  She loves to kayak, but is not much for being shoved up in the bushes to sign a geocaching log, hence we had to let a couple of them pass by us, as she was adamant I didn't take her and the yak up in some of the overhanging foliage.  I haven't been happily married for 35 years for being stubborn when she is this serious.

Clear lake Paddling Series of geocaches allows anyone with a smartphone of GPSr to find the geocaches.

 We loved the area and put in Z.O.R.K. (zombie outbreak response kayak) at Big Island Slough with the floating ramp.  Our first cache was a DNF.  My Bride was very leery of the over-hanging foliage and I figured we would be back in the future so we moved on.  The weather was perfect, the slough was gorgeous, and we made find after find doing the series, with the exception of CLAPS #2, the Earth cache, the multi (we couldn’t find it) and CLAPS #3, 9, 11 &12.

My Bride was a real trooper as we slid the kayak up under the over-hanging foliage.

 We were getting pretty baked by the time we got to 11 & 12 and didn’t look real hard.

Some of the soda tubes were literally un-openable without a pair of channel locks and I cut my hand on one of them trying to get the lid to turn.  I signed the outside of the tube, as I did not bring pliers.  Take note - a little Vaseline around the threads of these tubes will keep this from happening.  Others opened easily, with just a slight twist of the top.

This was a very thick and snaky place she did not like and some of the caches were in much worse and thick foliage.

 We had a six-foot alligator launch itself off the bank around #4 and I think I peed my Speedos a little bit.  My Bride laughed at me and kept paddling.  We saw an osprey catching fish and had a 4-foot alligator gar roll in the water right beside me.  Again, I peed a little bit.   Again, an alligator popped up not too far from us, and sink again as silently as it appeared.

My Bride telling me who had signed the log before us.  On a number of the caches, we backed the kayak in for me to sign, as she flat refused to "go in there."  "Okay!"  I said, and maneuvered Z.O.R.K. like a pro.

 We made it all the way to Red Bluff Road on Spring Gully and hauled the Z.O.R.K. out on the bank and walked the half mile aback to the park to get my Jeep and trailer.  We were 3.5 hours on the water at this point and didn’t realize it was 5-6 hour round trip journey to return to the park, via the way we came. 

It sure beats sitting on the couch yelling at each other, now doesn't it?

 We are novice kayakers, so a more determined person could do it faster, but what fun would that be?  Kayaking and looking for geocaches is a blast, great exercise, and the alligators just bumped it out the foshizzle.