Walter Gets His Sea Legs

The Adventurer, Vernon Wade

Vernon was born in the Pacific Northwest and still lives in the shadow of Mt. Hood, near the small town where he grew up. Vernon has spent decades wandering the hills, hunting mushrooms, camping and riding motorcycles into the remotest nooks and crannies to be found in the region.

The weather forecast this afternoon was for hot to unbearable. Amy and I loaded up the kayaks, Walter jumped in the truck, and we all headed north to Goose Lake in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

We arrived sometime close to noon-thirty. It took us almost no time to get the boats in the water but it took a little coaxing to get Walter onto the barge.

I didn’t get any photos because I was busy trying to get Walter to sit still. He didn’t want to; he dived overboard instead. I let him tow us back to shore. Once he shook off, I told him to load up again. If his paws worked that way I think he would have flipped me the bird. But his paws don’t work that way and he was on the leash, so eventually we came to an understanding.

When we got underway again, Walt settled down. He stood in the bow trembling, but eventually he sat down with his haunches hanging over the starboard gunnel. I shifted my weight to port to compensate, which worked fine, but honestly this barge is so stable I hardly needed to. Even when Walt jumped overboard, he barely rocked the boat.

We paddled around a bit, surrounded by blue damselflies; trout were jumping right next to us. Osprey and eagles were competing with the fishermen. Everyone was limiting out. Walter lay down in the bow and licked his feet.

Amy spied a secluded beach which looked like a nice place for a picnic. Walter and I landed and Amy paddled back to retrieve our lunch from the truck. Walter was dismayed to see her disappear around the bend. He would have swum after her but I called him back.

When Amy returned about a half-hour later Walter was beside himself with joy. To tell the truth, I was pretty happy, too. I was getting hungry!

When we launched after lunch Walter Dawg, an old hand at kayaks now, jumped right in the barge like there was nothing to it. We paddled around the lake a little more before returning to the ramp and pulling out. I count it as a successful excursion. Walter got his sea legs, we escaped the heat and a good time was had by all. We are looking forward to the next voyage.