It’s a simple enough plan. Scrub the algae off of the kayak with a Dobie pad and bleach. Wash the spiders off of the seat. Walk the 'yak down to the beach. Go paddling.
Well, the first bit went okay, although one of my hands is burning a bit from the bleach. Only when I turned it over to wash the bottom I heard a shush. I have wheels on it to make the 55-pound beast easy to move. I compressed one of the tubeless tires and let the air out.
Now, when I first got these wheels they were empty. I couldn’t get them inflated. A neighbour took them someplace and was able to put air in them. Gas station air stands don’t have enough power to push the sides of the tire against the plastic rim. I tried filling it from my SCUBA tank just now, but there’s still not enough pressure. (The only hose I have for the tire inflator is on the low-pressure side.) So how do I fill it?
I don’t relish hauling it down the hill; or worse, hauling it back up after a long paddle. I don’t have my Jeep with me. I don’t know if I can carry it on the Herald.
When I fill my tubeless wheelbarrow tire, I have a similar problem. My solution is to take the tire off the wheelbarrow. I put a rope around the tire – around the circumfrence loosely touching the rubber all around. Then I insert a stick under the rope and twist until the rope tightens against the tire. Giving it a couple more twists causes the edges of the tire to bow out and make better contact with the rim. I then fill it with a pump.
I saw a documentary of a trip through the far north, using modified Range Rovers with huge tires. To get the tires on the rims in the middle of nowhere, they put a bit of gasoline in them and tossed a match at it. Pow! instantly inflated tire.
If for some reason you feel OldGuy’s idea to be too pedestrian and try this, I recommend setting up a video camera first, so you can become famous on teh internet, like this guy.
Too bad I’ve missed high tide. Birch Bay is a rather broad mudflat when the tide is out. Since I won’t feel like paddling at midnight, I’ll have to wait until noon tomorrow. (Or rather, sometime before noon so that the tide won’t be going out the entire time I’m paddling.)
