get a little lost
Published April 10, 2006 | 
If I only could,I’d make a deal with God,
And I’d get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
With no problems. – kate
The sun was bright in the blue sky for the first time in days. We were anticipating a high of 50f, which may not seem like much, but it’s been awhile. We loaded a our little bit of gear into the old Jeep and headed off to the state park just 3 miles from our home.
I was a bit depressed pulling into the Stienke Basin parking area at the sight of all the activity. It’s time to share again. The good weather people are back. I don’t mean to be jaded, I mean 35 Subarus full people in tan and green should be a good thing, but most often it’s “nature lover camouflage”. And just to punctuate my feelings, the menagerie of dogs barking and growling from the ends of their 30 foot leashes was a constant reminder of 2 things; Dogs are not allowed in this area, and the people in the Subarus don’t really care much about the land they’re invading. A week or two from now it will be next to impossible to walk the trails without constantly stopping to scrape dog feces off your shoes. Yet, the good side is that we know they will only travel so far. As the trails go beyond a 2 or 3 mile loop most of the crowds will fade away. As the big hills appear they create a border between the noise and nature. The only people left going up the inclines are mountain bikers and a few other tree hugging weirdoes like ourselves. In this way hiking is just like kayaking. You have to get out past the beaches, past the rec boats and jet skis, before you can again find comfort in the naturl world.
On this day we decided to have a new adventure and go off trail and follow a spring stream as it meandered just a few miles down to Devil’s Lake at the bottom of the Baraboo range. It’s not an easy thing to get lost in our area. Just follow the stream. Or head in any direction until you hit a road or trail less than a mile or two from anywhere you happen to be.
We left the trail by a big wooden bridge and found our first little challenge almost immediately. The trail we had left crossed just one fork of the stream. To the left was swamp and to the right was the other fork. We couldn’t go through the swamp, so we had to cross the other fork. Now to be honest you could just get wet shoes and cross, but what fun would that be? Luckily we found a downed tree crossing the rushing little river and with a little re-enactment of circus history we were across and heading south. Along the way we hopped the stream many times as one side or the other became clogged with underbrush, or talus from a long past ice age. The forests as I’ve mentioned before are full of stone, but the talus fields are ALL stone. They seem to have been poured from the top of a given hill and cover an area in a great quartzite avalanche. The stones vary in this area from the size of a head to the size of a refrigerator. (Along the lake the stones are often the size of small houses.) Sometimes it’s easier to just cross the stream than to walk 100 yards or more across loose stone.
We found a place to picnic on a few moss covered stones. While we ate we talked and guessed about our location within the park. Which led to a change in plan. We then decided to climb out of the ravine and head north until we found a trail. In the end we can always come back to the stream and walk out. But it couldn’t be that far to the trail. . Could it?? We gauged our direction by the time and position of the sun. We put a large hill behind us as a “southern” marker and began the accent. To be sure this is not a big climb. These are forested hills with a few small ridges of bare stone. We maybe had to climb 500 feet out of the gorge on a fairly gradual rise. We climbed under the shadow of miniature oaks that are rooted in soil only a few inches deep. The smell of old leaves drying on the sun warmed quartzite permeated the air.
We chatted and walked and chatted and walked. I would keep an eye on the shadows along the ground and keep the sun on my left shoulder. And we chatted and walked and walked and chatted, until I found myself occasionally, just occasionally, checking to be sure my southern marker was still at my back. We’d stop and listen to the wind rustle through the dried leaves and again get our bearings. Then we chatted and walked some more. Well, this went on for some time as I tried to imagine how we were managing to walk precisely between two trails and a road that I knew to be near by. I thought just for fun I’d check my high tech watch compass, but in this place we seem to have no North! Yep, it was worthless. After about an hour we then decided that since we had Gryphon and he would be getting tired soon we would just turn around and head back to the stream and walk it back out. Which we did. Even in such silly circumstance as this you are pleased to hear the stream again. As we walked Mary talked about leaving her compass in the car and I bemoaned my Garmin GPS that suddenly died in the spring of last year. In another hour we were again walking down the trails among the barking dogs, and trendy outdoor wardrobes. Then back to the parking lot that today had more in common with Wal-Mart than it did with the breezy hill we had just been standing on only an hour or so ago.
Now, I’m fixated a bit. I have to go back out there. This time compass in hand, and see how close we were to the trails that I know must have been there. I was also reminded that I need a new GPS after my little Garmin was suddenly called. Any suggestions?
The Quiet Room
Published April 8, 2006 | 
This quiet place, it ain’t so new to me
It’s haunted atmosphere, has heard so many scream
My home from home, my twilight zone
My strangest dream
My confidant
I have confessed my life
The Quiet Room
Knows more about me than my wife – alice cooper
Humans have an amazing ability to be blind to what they don’t want to see. The end of existence is certainly one of those things. How could great adventures be undertaken without a certain level of selective blindness!? “We live forever thank God, or I’ll be damned if I’m launching out in that!!!”
It’s odd to me how some folks can focus so strongly and sacrifice so many years with the prize being “retirement”, and yet not be able to grasp how it often all comes down to a little square room, rubber tubes, morphine, and closed windows. Well, I plan for the future too. But it’s not retirement that tasks me, I plan for the little room. I keep reminding myself each day that the little room is waiting. I can smell that air, I’ve stood by that bed, it’s not hard to do. And that makes today seem just a bit more important. It tends to make me stop more often to listen to people finish sentences. When I ask “how are you?” I try to wait and see if they really would like to talk about how they actually are. I try to remember to apologize when I AM the A**hole. (It’s hard to apologize. Personal failure sucks.) I try to consciously find time for sensual joy in each day. If only for a short time. Sometimes all I can do is go outside and feel the breeze for a few short minutes. I just don’t want to piss it away. . . . Oh but I do!! Sometimes I do!! And who’s to say what I do with my day has any great value anyway. We’re all specks in the cosmos after all. But it’s my life and I don’t want to look back from the little room and be surprised it’s over. I don’t want to list the things I should have done, the words I should have said. I want to hope that I really did plan for my future. I took time for “life” each day. I don’ t seek meaning in my accidental existence. . . I just want to feel it.
PFDs, Kayak Rolling, Tech Wars & Rain
Published April 7, 2006 | 
lets take the boat outwait until darkness
let’s take the boat out
wait until darkness comes – pg
One of the ways I choose a topic for the daily post is to look through my search reports and see what kind of information some people are looking for when they stumble upon the site. If it’s something I’ve never addressed, I’ll write it down on my “future” list. So here’s a short one, “Rolling & PFDs”
Yes it is easier to learn rolls without a PFD. You can move around much better without the extra bulk. Surprisingly that added floatation in the PFD is not always helpful. However, if you’re out paddling and not just sitting in a pool or by the beach, you need to wear your pfd. Personally in a “safe” environment such as the pool or on my local beach with others around I will always practice rolling without the PFD. Especially new “traditional” style rolls. (I have not begun to wear a Tuilik) However, then I work to translate them back to wearing a PFD. Just because you can do a roll without a PFD, don’t just head out feeling you can do it with one on. You’d be surprised what a change it is. Having said all that, the rule is “ALWAYS WEAR YOUR PFD”. And, if I’m anywhere other than a pool or where the water is above my chest, I do.
So un-named stranger who was hoping to find the answer here. . I hope you come back, AND this was the answer you were looking for!
- d
Paddling From The Beginning: What the Hell is a Hip Snap?
Published April 6, 2006 | 
I need you to elevate me here
A corner of your lips
Is the orbit of your hips
Eclipse
elevate my soul – u2
Improving Your Hip-Snap
Published April 5, 2006 | 
Can’t you feel ‘em circlin’, honeyCan’t you feel ‘em schoolin’ around
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
And you’re the only bait in town – buffett
So, in Israel they’ve found a great method for working on your hip-snap. While we in the rest of the world work off the sides of pools, spotters hands or bows, they are working with Hammerhead sharks. Rumor has it that you must practice your hip-snap with a Hammerhead to get it just right. No wonder they’ve got so many great paddlers.
*The pictures were taken last week near the Hadera power station by Steve Gordon of the
Optimist Kayak Club at Sdot Yam. orinally posted on the Isreali Sea Kayak Forum
I’m an idiot. . .
Published April 4, 2006 | 
Dear pen pal, I’m told where you liveIs really quite far
Would you please send directions
On how I can get where you are?
Your friend, Charlie Brown.
- YGMCB soundtrack
Back when I was young and somewhat less ugly that I am today, I used to be involved pretty heavily in theatre in our part of the world. So I was about 17 and auditioning for the musical “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”. I stood there under that one silly beam of light and read for Charlie Brown. My line was “Who is Socrates anyway?” Me being nervous and not recognizing the name in print pronounced it as it looked, “SOcrAtes”, long O, long A. It got a great laugh. Of course I didn’t understand the joke and went ahead stone faced with the rest of the dialogue.
I got the lead role!! I don’t know how many people since then have said to me, “of all the Charlie Browns in the world, YOU are the Charlie Browniest!”. Maybe that’s true.
After suckering into an April Fools post, irritating a friend while trying to do something nice, and wrapped up and worrying about more little daily things than I should. . . I was really feeling like I was back on that stage.
Norsaq
Published April 3, 2006 | 
I wanna free fall out into nothin’Gonna leave this world for awhile
And I’m Free
Free Fallin’ – petty
Early on when I was starting to learn my first roll. (the dreaded C to C) I went out and bought a copy of "Grace Under Pressure. Learning The Kayak Roll". by Rapid Progression. Today the thing that still stands out to me as a point to remember from their presentation is, "The paddle does not roll you up". And that’s something all rolling students have a hard time grasping. "Well, if that damn paddle doesn’t roll you up, what the hell good is it? . . . ". The answer. . . Not much really. Well, depending on the roll. But with the C to C the paddle is almost worthless, and it takes a long time to learn that. Remember I’m not all that gifted and I’ve been kayaking for about 5 years now. Add to that I’m an addict and practice all the time. As my roll became bombproof, (as the hardcore guys say), I found that I was really just trying to get the damn paddle out of the way. From there I would have thought the Norsaq would be cake. (See; "What do I know. .)
One of the things I had never realized that the paddle DID do for me was to give me something to do with my hands! When I first started trying hand rolls or stick rolls the problem I had is that I couldn’t figure out where my hands should go. I’d just go upside down and flail around. Next thing you know I was wet exiting. (just as Alex) That was pretty much the story for me until the first time I got in the pool with my new Norsaq or rolling stick. Don’t ask me what changed but it didn’t take more than a half hour or so to suddenly find something to do with my hands. And me without a date!!
The first thing I needed to learn was to trust the rolling stick. So as soon as I was in the water I began to work on draws with the stick. Basically sticking the Norsaq in the water and then sculling my boat sideways. This helped me to feel the way it reacted to the water. Next I began to layback and slide off into the water and side-scull. Again I was doing exactly what I would do with the paddle, only now my arm became the paddle shaft and the Norsaq became the blade. Yeah, this is a bit difficult at first. But surprisingly for the most part it was just as if I had a paddle. But now I had an extra arm. So I would just toss it over my back deck as a counter balance. This made the side scull with the stick even a bit easier. (at this point all the experts are going, "Well, duh!!)
Next thing I did was to roll upside down with a spotter (poor Mary) and just move the stick around under the water and work on bringing myself to the surface. Not rolling. Just trying to bring my body horizontal to the surface of the water. Then when I’d run out of air, I’d tap and get rescued. 
Reminding myself I was not trying to roll, allowed me to take time to to get comfortable moving around under the water without the paddle. Something I really needed to do. I had "paddle roll" habits, and I needed to open my mind a bit.
At first I’d work on sculling up. This worked well enough. Then for something different, I’d tuck my body forward and reach out my arms to the front of the kayak and then sweep back just like a sweep roll. This would also bring me to the surface. In fact, reaching forward and sweeping back seemed much easier. Occasionally my nose would just break the surface and then it would do it’s flesh colored impersonation of the "Seaview" and dive, dive, dive. Suddenly I’m slapping on the hull, and testing whether my wife still wants me alive or not.
So far so good. So now what happens if right when I come to that closest point to the surface… Right when my nose is about to break through to the air, I reach out with my left arm and smack the water and hip snap? The stick would do nothing but sit there at the end of my extended right arm and keep me from sinking. Bang!!! I was up. Imagine laying on your side and doing the crocodile chomp with your outstretched arms. Reach forward, sweep back, and chomp! I was not quite sure how that all worked, but it did work. Then with a little repetition I found that I really didn’t have to be all that close to the surface. In fact I came to the point of just following my hands with my eyes, just like learning that C to C.
You may have noticed I’m describing a couple different concepts here. That’s because I was learning in two boats at once. In my ww boat, at first, I would just roll upside-down then reach my arms to the surface then reach out and "bang" on the water. This along with a hip-snap would bring me up. However in the sea boat I could not seem to get it right. This is when I started reaching forward and sweeping my arms back to roll the boat about half way up, then finishing with a twist and a much smaller left arm slap. My right arm with the stick just holding position out at a right angle to the kayak. In subsequent practice sessions I began to work on rolling out of position, putting the stick in my bungies (depending on the boat), or letting the stick float, then rolling to grab it. These exercises taught me that sweeping method was more consistent for me in either kayak than the "banging on the surface" method. But I’m sure that’s a personal thing and just because it’s still new to me.
Two things kill my stick roll. Failing to hipsnap and depending on the arms. Same mistake we make when we first learn to roll. Remember, "The paddle doesn’t roll you up" or the stick, or the hand. You can slap all day, but if you don’t roll the boat up with your body you’re not coming up. Well, it’s not bloody likely anyway. The other problem was to be lazy with my reach. I wouldn’t reach out and up enough with my arms and that would leave the stick sitting like 2 feet below the surface. Even though my body was up, the stick was so low in the water it would tend to pull me back down.
When working on stick & hand rolls you do get tired after awhile. You have to know when to call it a day. As soon as you get tired and out of focus you start missing rolls. The hip snap goes to hell or your sweeps become half-a**ed. Being tired is almost like learning it all over again. For myself, I have a game I play. At the very end of practice, when I’m most beat I go back and do everything I’ve learned another 3 times. My hope is that no matter how trashed I am, I could pull my focus back together and produce another good roll. No, my hope is that no matter how trashed I am, I could pull off another paddle roll, stick roll, and hand roll, and maybe a nice rodeo recovery as well. AND LOOK GOOD DOING IT!! Heck, well I’m at it I’d better start working on that head stand!
Now for something completely different. Remember that bit in Sesamee Street where they sang, "One of these things is not like the other??" http://home.comcast.net/~wadenorton/paddling_photos.htm . Thanks Wade!!!
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