Folding Kayaks Forum

Hello to everyone.
My wife and I have been folding kayakers for 20 years. We bought our first and only folding kayak, a Nautiraid Grand Raid Expedition, 20 years ago this summer from Peter Schwierzke of the Western Folding Kayak Center in Somerset, Ca.

In those days of yester-year (prior to 9/11) each person could fly with three 70lbs pieces of checked baggage (for FREE!!!) plus your carry on and "personal item". My wife and I took advantage of this wonderful benefit and have kayaked Resurrection Bay out of Seward, AK and up the east shore and part way across the north shore of Kauai before a storm overtook us and cancelled our carefully made kayak camping trip around Kauai. Still we had a wonderful time.

With today's travel restrictions (I don't see us kayak camping Kauai anytime soon) we have 2 favorite places to kayak - Waldo Lake (just over 2 hours travel time) and anywhere in the San Juan Islands. We had plans to go camping and kayaking at Waldo earlier this month, but the snow melt was late (a LOT of snow this year), which opened the camp grounds several weeks late and, according to the ranger, the mosquitoes are horrendous (not unlike the arctic). We had camped early at Waldo about 35 years ago - never again!!! The mosquitoes were worse than anything we had experienced in lower Alaska!!! Still, Waldo Lake is a beautiful lake to paddle from late August until the snows return.

Waldo Lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_Lake is one of the clearest lakes in the world .... and deep. In the morning, with no wind and clouds reflecting on the water, it's like paddling thru the clouds, but you can see the bottom more than 80 feet below you. Very cool!!!

Here's a pic of our gorgeous 20 year old Nautiraid:

Great post, thanks. I bought my first Klepper from Peter close to 20 years ago. After at least a half hour of discussion on the phone, I asked what credit cards he took. Oh, just send a a check, he said. I did, and he didn't even wait for it to arrive, let alone clear, before he shipped my boat.

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Michael Edelman
FoldingKayaks.org Webmaster

Welcome Scoots, sounds like some great memories. And more to be made!

Best,
g

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"There is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats"

1990's A1 Expedition
2010 Klepper Quattro
Kayaksailer
Balogh sail rig, 24 + 36 HP
Torqeedo outboard
1938 Sachs-Fichtel seitenbordmotor

I purchased a Kahuna from Peter back in 2002 while deployed in the Indian Ocean. It came with a bottle of champagne as a welcome home. Still have the Kahuna.

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Feathercraft Kahuna ( Angela )
Mariner Express ( Miruku Maru ) ( In Storage)
Innova Helios 380
Northwest Sportee (SuperBoat)
Innova Safari
Mariner I
Feathercraft Java
Nautiraid 14
Innova Sunny
Feathercraft K-Light

Great boat, great story, thank you.