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.
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