Those aren’t white sand beaches
A couple of weeks ago, we spent some time camping at Newport State Park on the Door County Peninsula. Our hike-in site was also a paddle-in site, so we were able to take a variety of day paddles from our campsite.One day, we did the 25-mile round-trip to Washington Island, with stops at the Northport ferry landing and the former Coast Guard station on Plum Island.…
read moreBear with us….literally
We just left the Adirondacks in upstate New York, where we camped on a small island in Lower Saranac Lake and spent the days paddling and hiking. At night, we hung our food from trees–standard practice for avoiding messy visits from bears, racoons and other local residents.During one visit to a paddling outfitter in the town of Saranac Lake, we learned about the bear-proof containers that are popular among backcountry campers in this area.…
read moreReentering the blogosphere
Our failure to post anything for the past few months doesn’t reflect inactivity. Quite to the contrary, we’ve been teaching and training on the water, and reflecting and planning off the water.…
read moreCan you canoe, part two
There’s nothing like getting together with a group of talented coaches and working on skills none of you yet possesses. Last Friday, Scott Fairty took Paul Redzimski, Wendy Madgwick, Bonnie Perry, Lyn Stone, John Martin and the two of us out on the water for a Canoe Two Star assessment and an update of our old BCU Canoe Safety to the new Foundations of Safety and Rescue.…
read moreSigns of Spring: Part 1
Everything’s coming up kayaks.After a winter of paddling mostly indoors, it’s exciting to get out on the lake and rivers again. We’ve paddled on Lake Michigan several times already this year.…
read moreTristate paddle
Most of the time, we hear about exciting paddling opportunities after they’re publicized. We aren’t involved in the nitty gritty of organizing them; we’re content to participate.Not so the upcoming Burnham to Marquette Sea Kayak Expedition.…
read moreClose encounters of the encouraging kind
When you kayak on Lake Michigan, the rules of the road don’t count for much. The law of tonnage trumps all. Big boats have the right of way, and little boats stay out of the way.And yet, we have our friends.…
read moreIndulging our inner salmon
Here’s something we have in common with salmon: We’ve been in all kinds of wonderful water, but every year we return to the tiny little pool where our love for paddling hatched.OK, we stretched that metaphor to death.…
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