Outer Islands Trip

After the symposium, I joined 5 other folks for a 5 day trip with Living Adventure. I knew that Tony, a friend whom I had met at a kayaking class the previous summer, was going on the trip. He had also been at the symposium. Coincidentally, one of his friends, Bob, had also signed up for the trip, and was at the symposium with us. We met the last two trip members, Amy and Sue, the morning of the trip. Our guide was Brian, who had paddled around Lake Superior the previous summer.

Loading up the gear was a little more interesting than usual because we ended up taking only one tandem. We had to make some adjustments, including swapping out the two burner stove that they normally bring for two camp stoves. The first couple days I paddled with the cooking pots between my feet, but by the third day we had eaten enough food to make packing up much easier.

Our first day's paddle was to Oak Island, with our campsite being at Oak 4, two thirds of the way up the western side of the island. This was my first trip in June, and the mosquitoes that had been non-existent on my previous trips in mid-August were most definitely present. And mosquitoes do like me. I gradually gave up my disinclination to use nasty chemicals (I had initially hoped that a bug shirt with a hood might fend off the bugs, but such was not the case.) I considered staying in my tent each morning until the mosquitoes were gone, but decided that was not a sound strategy.

Day 2 we headed off to Rocky via Otter. We paddled around the north end of Oak and had time to investigate the rock formation on the northeast corner that I had only seen from a distance on a previous trip.

Fog rolled in before we started our crossing to Otter, and we started out with a compass heading. Our group had two deck mounted compasses and a hand held compass between us. It was eerie paddling through the fog. At one point we heard a boat's engine, and waited until we could see it.

There was a beam wind, and my learning on this crossing was that navigating by compass is not a good time to try to compensate for the wind without using your skeg, at least for me. Too many back and forth course corrections. Next time I'll use the skeg from the beginning.

The fog lifted half way across the channel, and we could see that we would have hit Otter, but our course was slightly off, so it was nice to be able to see where we were going once again.

After lunch on Otter and then paddling on to our campsite on Rocky, Tony tried a roll in the bay (way too cold for rolling practice), and then I paddled up the bay to see what was there. Rocky is one of the islands with private homes remaining, and north of the dock, the shoreline scenery changed from wilderness to lake homes/cabins and all of their accoutrements -- outbuildings, swingsets, gardens, boats, etc..

Day 3 we paddled to Devils, around it to see the caves on the north end (way cool! never get bored with them), had lunch at the dock, then headed back to Rocky. From Rocky, we island hopped to South Twin, then Ironwood, and finally crossed to our campsite on Cat. In my "island count", we added South Twin legitimately as we stopped for a break. We didn't stop on Ironwood, but I did touch it with my paddle.

It was interesting noticing the sounds of the islands on this trip. Different shorelines have different sounds … the gurgles of smaller caves, the deeper slaps and glugs and booms of larger caves. The hissing of waves on a sand beach. Sometimes the most noticeable sound is the sigh of wind through the trees.

On Cat, the campsite in the trees was brand new and still somewhat under construction. The mosquitoes were fierce, and we ended up carrying our dinner down to the sand spit. It was probably the nicest dinner I've had in the Apostles. There was a powerful awareness of being in an archipelago as we watched the setting sun and the many islands surrounding us as the sky slowly darkened. Several pairs of loons called across the water.

Day 4 we headed to Outer, where we stopped for lunch. An old fishing tug, the Faithful, had been scuttled on the sandspit in the fifties and the wooden hull remained, half buried in the sand.

After lunch, we crossed to Stockton and paddled along the same shore as on the Stockton tour at the symposium, though this time the sun was out.

Day 5 we headed back to LAI. We paddled around the south end of Stockton and stopped for an early lunch, then crossed to Hermit. No stop there, as there is a young bear who has learned to associate kayakers with food. Apparently he surprised some kayakers and they threw food at him in hopes that he would go away. (Bad idea!). Brian had had a run in with the bear on an earlier trip, and we paused off shore at the beach and he narrated the tale, pointing out exactly where all of the exciting moments occurred.

Arriving at Living Adventure, we learned that Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon had died while we were on the trip.

Inland Sea Symposium

The Inland Sea Symposium was special for me. Yes, I'm going to 4 symposia this summer, but the ISS is the one I heard about first, before I even knew what a kayak symposium was or that there was more than one symposium out there. I'd been checking their website all winter, waiting for the information about this year's event to appear. I may not have been the first person to register, but I was pretty darn early.

Friday morning was tour day. I had opted for the Stockton Island paddling trip. Bob was doing the Stockton hiking trip. Tony was off to York and Raspberry, while Chuck (whom I had met at the Windy City symposium) was off to Sand. I was envious of another trip with Nigel and Joe Ko, that was a dash out to Devils. However, I didn't see how I could justify calling myself an Advanced paddler, which was the requirement for the trip.

We Stockton Islanders loaded our kayaks on top of the boat that would take us to Stockton, then headed out. Looking behind us, we could see that the fog had rolled in across the Sand, York/Raspberry, and Devils tours by mid morning and was heading our way. Our tour was an island circumnavigation, so the fog was not an issue for us, but the other trips had one or more island crossings, so it appeared that they would have an opportunity to work on their ded reckoning and/or GPS skills.

Upon arriving on Stockton Island, the group of 6 advanced paddlers took off right away, as did the 5 people who had opted for the hiking trip. That left the 35 odd intermediate paddlers to get ready to head out. Of course, the bigger the group, the longer everything takes. We split into pods, and I was fortunate enough to join the fast pod. We promptly moved out to the front of the main group once we were underway and were able to experience a small group paddle vs. a massive group paddle.

We headed off around the island counter clockwise, rounding Presque Isle Point, then crossing Julian Bay. We looked for the wreck of the Noque Bay, which was supposed to be marked by a buoy. We saw neither the wreck nor the buoy. A project for a calmer day. http://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/explore_noquebay_intro.cfm

We stopped for lunch in a cozy bay with a big sea stack and pretty much filled the beach with our kayaks. After lunch, we continued on, passing more sea caves and sea stacks. Our pod was granted special dispensation to head out ahead of the group. By the time we needed to turn around, the fog had arrived. We kept the island in sight off our starboard bow as we returned. There were some interesting waves coming from the port side as we rounded some of the points, but it was generally an easy paddle and definitely a fun trip.

In the evening, I met Chan and his wife. Chan has been working with my brother Michael on the CODC building (another story altogether), and lives in Washburn. We walked from their house to dinner and the keynote speech that Nigel Dennis gave about his circumnavigation of South Georgia Island. Interesting trip to hear about, but I must admit that I've taken South Georgia off my fantasy wishlist of places to paddle. Something about having to fend off large agressive male seals in mating season with your kayak paddles, to say nothing about the frigid temperatures and high winds made me think there might be better places to dream about. At a weather class the next day the instructor provided guidelines for skills levels needed for paddling in various wind speeds, and the winds they encountered in South Georgia were in the "Crazy Brits" category.

The next morning I had signed up for a rolling class. For some reason, an 8:00 AM rolling class in Lake Superior didn't draw a lot of students. In fact, I ended up being the only one there. I worked with Pete for about an hour, and dramatically improved my roll. I can now find my setup position even if I don't start the roll already set up, and can try a second time if I miss it the first time. I learned to let myself settle before trying to roll up, and I also learned a nice trick of finishing the roll with a little sculling brace if needed. Still lots of work to do, but it's getting better.

Sunday morning was the making of the 350. 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, we have already passed that limit. The goal of the "350.org" organization is to inspire the world to take action about global warming, and one of the ways they do this is encouraging ways to publicize the 350 target. So the symposium took on making a giant 350 on the water with kayaks. The organizing folks set some anchors and laid out (recycled) nylon webbing, and marshaled and cajoled 153 kayaks into position. Then an airplane flew overhead and took some pictures. Turned out pretty well: http://www.inlandsea.org/

All in all, a great weekend.

Windy City Symposium

The Windy City Symposium was the first of 4 symposia I planned to go to over the summer, in Chicago IL, Washburn WI, Door County MI, and Grand Marais MI. Way too much driving, way too much carbon contribution, but the options to improve one's kayaking skills are few and far between, so you go where the opportunities are.

Windy City had almost been canceled due to low enrollment, but when all was said and done, they ended up offering all the classes I was most interested in, so I went ahead with the trip east.

The symposium started Friday morning, and I arrived at the Illinois Beach State Park campground Thursday evening. After setting up my tent, I went for a walk to unwind and spotted a brightly lit commercial building which I initially took to be the conference center that was located nearby, and later discovered that it was a retired nuclear plant. Odd, to say the least, to be camping near the foot of a nuclear power plant, retired or not. Down at the beach, I looked across the water in the haze, and it seemed as if the far side of the lake was just a couple miles away, but that was just an illusion. To the south the lights of Chicago lit up the sky. During the night, sounds of boats, trains, airplanes and highways drifted across the campground, making it an oasis in the midst of a very large urban area.

Friday was a day of forward strokes and boat control. We worked with Ben Lawry and Pete Tibenski in the morning, and added Pete Jones in the afternoon. I found that I was ever so slowly starting to get the torso rotation thing that they had been trying to explain at the IDW, as well as getting a somewhat more solid lean. Our first exercise was getting our legs out of our cockpits and pivoting around our boats, and the capsizes commenced almost immediately (I was fortunate enough to stay upright for this exercise).

Saturday was the BCU 3 Star training day. The BCU is the British Canoe Union, and they have 5 levels, denoted by stars. I had hopes and dreams of earning a 3 star award the next day. We spent Saturday working on towing and other skills in fairly rough water (2-3 foot seas).

Sunday morning we worked on rescue scenarios. Pete (the coach from Wales) had been the main instructor on Saturday, and was part of the instructor team on Sunday. When the plan was that we would work on towing again, he offered to work on bracing with me. We started with low braces, and I immediately noticed that his brace was relaxed and not rushed at all, while mine was a jerky slap. Unfortunately, before I got much farther I capsized (again, we were in 2-3 foot waves). After we got me back in my boat, we headed in to shore and Pete pulled my boat up on the sand and dug a hole that shaped the path the paddle was supposed to follow, and had me do my low brace into the hole and back out. Nice learning aid that he thought up on the spot.

At that point, I was pretty sure that I wasn't ready to do the BCU 3 Star assessment, and after our lunch break I headed up to tell the instructor that I was not going to participate. However, it appeared that there was only one other student, and you need 2 to run an assessment. So I decided to go ahead … that I would learn something no matter what, and it would be worth it to let the other student proceed. At the last minute the 3rd student showed up.

About half an hour into the assessment, the instructor said that none of us were ready for the assessment and offered us options: proceed with the assessment, switch to a training format, or hang it up. We opted to switch to a training format, and had a chance to learn some stuff in the wind and waves.

When the class ended, we packed up our boats and I headed home. I drove for a couple hours then stopped at a hotel for the night. I was one tired puppy, but I had learned lots and made several new friends. All in all, it was a great weekend.