Weekend Kayaking Trip

The Anderson crew for my Pre-Orientation kayaking and camping trip

Fri-Sun (August 27-29)

Traffic jam on the Pacific Ocean

Last weekend's optional pre-orientation kayaking trip was definitely a highlight of my short stay in LA so far.  The roster ended up being 12 first-year students, 1 alumni who graduated last year, and 2 guides.  We met on campus at 7 am on Friday, fought LA rush hour traffic on a group bus ride to the marina, and then took a ferry to Catalina Island.  The ferry ride was a rocky 25 mile trip that left a lot of folks very queasy, but at least we got a scenic look along the way, passing by a bunch of dolphins and whales.  Once on the island we made lunch, packed up our dry bags for the trip and loaded up the kayaks.  I got matched up with one of the girls who had been freaking out at the trip meeting the day before because she was afraid of everything wildlife and camping related.  This made me a little nervous about how her kayaking abilities would be (not that I had any myself), but she ended up being able to hold her weight and was real entertaining to travel with.

View of our campsite from above

We kayaked 4 miles through the Pacific Ocean to our campsite, which was actually a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  There was one part with especially large waves and strong wind, which tried to push us into the rocks surrounding the island.  After 3-4 hours we arrived at our site.  Because of the steep incline on the beach and the strong surf, getting our kayaks to shore and dismounting was also a difficult task.  A lot of people wiped out getting off them, and dragging the kayaks up the shore to a safe spot was pretty strenuous.  Eventually we all made it to the beach, and we set up our campsite.  We started up a fire, cooked some dinner, and then had the expected getting-to-know-you icebreaker activities by the campfire and then went to bed (no tents, just sleeping bags on top of tarps).

After hiking to the top of one of the nearby peaks

We woke up at around 7:30 on Saturday morning, and since the weather was overcast and chilly, we postponed any kayaking/snorkeling activities for the morning and went on a hike instead.  That got the blood flowing, and once we returned to the beach, we went snorkeling for a little while.  Even in wetsuits, the Pacific Ocean is VERY cold.  There were more fish to see than I expected, but nothing overly exciting.  We had lunch and then a lot of people (including both guides) decided it was naptime.  One student is a part time magician, so he put on a short show (plug: for more information check out shahmagic.com).  Afterwards some of of us walked around the beach for awhile and then 4 of us decided to go for another hike.  We made it to a pretty high peak overlooking much of the island, which was really cool.  When we returned to the campsite it was just in time to play "2 Truths and a Lie" followed by what the guides called "The Greatest Game Ever."  It was some weird combination of Pictionary and Telephone.  For anyone in the family reading this, remind me to introduce this game at the next big family gathering over the holidays because it actually was a lot of fun.  We had "fried" mac and cheese for dinner which was surprisingly delicious, and then more campfire icebreaker games before bedtime.

Cooking on the beach

We had to wake up bright and early on Sunday (around 6:30) to eat and then clean up the whole campsite before heading out.  We played one more game (something reminiscent of Simon Says) to get energy levels high before kayaking from the beach.  We made one more stop at a nearby beach to snorkel some more, and then kayaked the rest of the way back to the marina at Two Harbors.  The return trip was considerably easier because the weather was calmer, and everyone was relieved to be back on solid ground in a location that had running water and most importantly, showers (the campsite only had a few portapotties, and no other amenities).  We all took 1.5 minute showers for 50 cents, and then bought some lunch and scarfed it down before the ferry ride back to LA.

Overall, the trip was a ton of fun and I'm very glad I did it.  It was a good opportunity to get to know a small group of other Anderson students very closely in a short period of time before being thrown into a huge group of people during orientation.  The students on the trip ended up being a really fun group and everyone had a good time with each other.  The experience was made better for some people who weren't outdoorsy because of the extra sense of accomplishment of roughing it on the kayaks and in the camp scene.  Although I've done plenty of camping over the previous few weeks, the kayaking was an interesting experience I have never really had before, and camping on a beach was a really cool, new experience for me too.  Waking up to hear the rush of waves, and going to bed without tents with a star filled sky above were definitely very nice aspects of the trip.

Snorkeling picture from underwater