Going


Commando


A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE WITH KAYAKING’S MAN IN BLACK


STORY AND PHOTOS BY NIGEL FOSTER


—continued on page 30 ADVENTURE KAYAK | | 29


WE BEGAN OUR TRIP AS DUBSIDE INVARIABLY DOES: AT THE BUS STOP. I followed as he dragged the black bag containing his folding kayak and paddling gear on its wheeled frame past the children’s playground to a fence overlooking Puget Sound. There we paused while he pulled out a coloured map. “Here’s this put-in.” His finger identified our location. “At the bottom of this hill, there should be a footbridge.” Moving his finger to indicate another spot on the map where the road curved close to the water. “I thought this place might be good too but when I checked it out, there’s no way to get across the rail tracks. You have to think of that sort of thing when you choose put-ins. Bus routes....” He held up his timetable, and a map. “You don’t want to cross private land either—it would give kayakers a bad name—but there are often little public access places to the beach if you look for them.” We followed the fence to a corner where wooded land dropped steep- ly to a creek, and then as we backtracked we ran into a dog walker who pointed us in a different direction, back to the road to cross the creek. There in the bushes we found the top of several steep flights of steps. The thud of descending wheels gave way to their steady rumble as we


crossed the caged walkway high above the rail tracks and rolling stock. As we spiralled down more steep steps toward the beach I reflected how awkward a carry this would be with a rigid kayak, even with two people, yet how comfortably Dubside dealt with it.


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