The Lake on Bear Glacier - big floaty ice bits!

I received an email out of the blue from Ron, the kayak guide from Backcountry Safaris who showed me around Bear Glacier on my recent travels to Alaska. He’d just returned after packing down his camp in the woods for the Winter, and had a couple of photos of our trip. Now I know I’ve probably bored you all to death with all my Alaska photos, but it reminded me what a truly spectacular place it is, and how handy it was to have my Folbot Cooper with me.  Plus, it’s my site so I can do what I like – haha!  Cheers – FP

Looking at Bear Glacier, the Harding Icefield's biggest chunk of moving ice.

Panasonic Lumix Life Photography Exhibition, Sydney

I recently submitted ten of my Alaskan kayaking photographs to a competition and won a place in their final exhibition, held in the Global Gallery in Paddington, Sydney. For a whopping four hours too – haha! I took my family down there to have a look and it may well be that we were the only ones who saw it, so to make sure some other people saw it too we took a few photos. So here it is – and a huge thanks to everyone who voted online for me, I know I harrassed you all too much!

Bloody big Panasonic flat-screens with photos of Alaska

Exhibitor collage - my photo of the Alaska Railroad featured prominantly

A perfectly nice picture spoiled by some fat bloke...

"Tabasco" the Folbot Cooper, on Sydney Harbour at last

It’s embarrassing to admit this, but last week I forgot that my BD Nanook was still on the roof of my car as I drove into the garage. Imagine my anguished cry as I heard the smashing, tearing sounds as I drove my kayak into the garage-door. Fortunately, other than a few scratches, the kayak was ok. The car itself was also ok. My expensive roof-racks however, could only be described as “smashed”.

The benefit of having a Folbot folding kayak however is that roof-racks aren’t required.  I’d already repaired the damage I did to “Tabasco” in Alaska, so packed her back into her backpack, placed her in the car, and off I went.

Now today was also about acquiring a Greenland paddle and testing it some more for both speed and ease of use. With the help of a GPS unit I took off and put the Folbot and the paddle through their paces, and was again suprised by the results.

Greenland paddle and skin-on-frame kayak. How Inuit!

With a very relaxed paddle-stroke, I was cruising at a little more than 6km/hr.  Considering my composite BD Nanook is even faster, there is easily going to be enough cruising speed for my upcoming 111km paddle on the Hawkesbury. But more importantly was the continued fun I was having with the paddle. With one hand over the end of a blade, you can use it like an extended canoe paddle, and with the length of the paddle a few strokes like this almost fire the kayak out of the water! By using the full length of the paddle, sweeps and steering strokes offer enormous responsiveness. I could swap between paddling low-angle, high-angle and canoe-paddling whenever I felt like it without losing any cruising speed at all. In fact the more I used it, the more I fell in love with this thing.

Loving the greenland/folbot combo!

So now the final test will be the euro vs the Greenland in my BD Nanook, with the GPS to test for cruising speed. Somehow I think the fun of the Greenland is going to win it anyway. 

Kayaking Resurrection Bay, Alaska in Folbot Cooper

It is very hard to describe Alaska in words. It is a place of extremes, both harsh and beautiful.  Green forests that simply stop part way up mountains, to be replaced by jagged rocky faces. Beautiful blue water that is freezing cold to touch. Locals that can be scary or nice.

I flew into Anchorage from Chicago with a bunch of US soldiers heading up to the military base at Fairbanks (nothern Alaska). From there I had a quick stop over before catching the Alaska Rail train through the most amazing scenery (including seeing moose) to Seward, a small town on the Kenai Peninsula that is the gateway for cruises and tours to the glacier fields.

Once there in Seward I spent the afternoon walking around the entire town, staring stupidly at the enormous snow-capped mountains that surround the town, before getting settling down in the Hotel Seward.

Now today’s paddling plan centered around trialling the Folbot Cooper (now named “Tabasco”). Of course 30 knot winds and breaking waves are not ideal for a test run of a new kayak, but it was my last chance before heading off to the glacier fields and I had to get a paddle in it done to make sure I could handle it before putting it in much more dangerous waters.

So I got a lift down to a rocky beach south of Seward and proceeded to put the kayak together, under the watchful eyes of gathering people.

Folbot Cooper on the "beach", Seward Alaska

And with a gathered crowd intent on watching me take off, I pushed the kayak out into the oncoming waves, jumped in quickly and took off.

Now the first thing that struck me was how much flex there was in the body. As I was riding over the oncoming waves the kayak would feel like it was bending under its own weight. But other than the feeling, the kayak proved to be extremely stable. In fact, much more stable than my Boreal Design Nanook (which surprised me, as I love my Nanook!). I could actually pack the paddle away under the deck rigging and know that I wasn’t going to need it to brace against the side-waves that were buffeting me.

So once I settled in and felt comfortable on the Folbot Cooper, I started to look more around me. And not ten metres away, a curious sea-otter was stretching its neck to get a good look at the fat guy in his red kayak! Well, I scrambled for the camera but in the face of the waves I found it hard. In the end, once I got the camera out the otter disappeared.

In general the snow-capped mountains surrounding the bay are just awe-inspiring. It really is hard not to feel something spiritual about their presence. I’m not sure my photos do them justice but they really do bring a huge smile to my face!

Anyway, after an hour paddling I brought the boat back in and disassembled it on the beach,  again in front of a small and curious crowd.  All up a very successful first paddle of the folbot, especially as I didn’t fall in!

Fat Paddler looking very content on the water at Seward Alaska