Welsh immigrants, like the Irish, were the most easily identifiable British immigrant group in Wisconsin. The Welsh made a conscious effort to settle in rural enclaves apart from other English and American settlers. Welsh immigration occurred primarily between 1840 and 1890 with the peak years between 1850 and 1860. The earliest known Welsh settlers in Wisconsin arrived in Genessee in Waukesha county in 1840. Most Welsh became farmers and settled in the southeastern counties. The largest groupings were in the eastern half of Columbia county, western Dodge county, and southern Green Lake and Marquette counties. – wisconsinhistory.org

I find it interesting and just a bit coincidental that large numbers of people from Cornwall and Wales came to our part of Wisconsin. Even my own heritage needs only go back a couple generations to legendarily strong English accents. Through kayaking we seem to be circling a touchstone of sorts. Imagine, by 1850 over 7000 Welsh minors alone were employed in southern Wisconsin!

The old Welsh Church Cemetery is just a few miles down the road from my home in Columbia County. It was dedicated in 1856 on the site of the original Welsh community church. These days the log church is long gone. There are a few newer memorials among the many fallen and fading stones. Many of the names of these early settlers to our area are wearing away or slipping under the sod. Odd day. Instead of being out shopping on “black friday” as is the way with our modern culture, we found ourselves on a warm breezy afternoon pulling the grass back from long forgotten stones sinking below the earth. We came to explore our past and found ourselves feeling a bit sad. Not so much for those who died so long ago, but for their wives, husbands and children who many years ago lovingly created these memorials, many scribed in a language we could never hope to read, to keep the memory of their loved ones alive. Now on a November day in 2006 strangers in time are pulling back the grass before even their stone memorials are lost forever. One day we will be gone. I wonder who will mind their memory then?

Went to Madison yesterday. . .
found a new friend. . .
His name is Nigel. . .
www.seakayakinguk.com

So I don’t have much time today. Have to run, run, run. Some days are just like that. I probably won’t post tomorrow with Thanksgiving coming up. Friday I have the BIG guest announcement for Canoecopia so stop back for that. I may want your help.

Thanksgiving always strikes me as a funny sort of holiday. Heck, retail just wants it over with so you can start Christmas shopping. Here our local downtown had their Christmas parade last weekend! They figure they need to catch you before you spend all your money on deli bought, “home style”, pumpkin pies. I’ve said before Christmas in America is not always so pretty. Yet I suppose a little blending would be ok. If for the right reasons. After all, in many ways Christmas and Thanksgiving at their roots are about the same thing, survival. And our solstice holidays are really our last pause before we jump fully into the darkness of winter. Regardless of how disgusted I get with what our society has done to the holidays, I can still recognize their value through the din of the cattle prod megaphones of big box stores. It’s important to gather with family and friends. Especially for we “darker minded” folks. One thing I know about winter is it’s going to get much colder before summer comes again. It always does.

Enjoy these holidays. Don’t forget to get mushy. This holiday season if we do one thing. . let’s embarrass ourselves publicly and look our friends in the eyes, put a hand on their shoulder (touch is important), muster up the courage to tell them if only once what we know to be true. Tell them we love them, that they are important to us. After all, this life is fleeting.

Hadas Feldman of Terra Santa Sea Kayak Expedition Center in Israel is certainly one of those amazing personalities of sea kayaking. She has traveled the world over and has had some wonderful adventures. Her previous expeditions include; a 600 km journey up the cost of Kamchatka with Justine Curgenven, a 6 month, 6500 km circumnavigation of the four main islands of Japan along with Jeff Allen, an 800km trip in Alaska with Saggi Nehushtan, and last winter she was part of the team which achieved the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the sub Antarctic island of South Georgia. Truly amazing achievements.

She first caught my attention, like many of us I’m sure, in the two, “This Is The Sea” DVDs. Hadas is a scene stealer, bubbly and energetic and a laugh a minute. When asking around about her you quickly find that anyone who knows her well can’t seem to talk about her without gushing. It’s funny, When I got to ask Hadas a few questions recently I wondered about something she said about choosing a partner on her expeditions, ” he must be fun. .nature loving person, with a kind heart” At first I thought, well those guys must be few and far between. But then I thought, I bet she finds a lot of these kind of partners really. One great thing about humans is we tend to rise to the level of those around us

Hadas is now planning a trip to Newfoundland in 2007 with Tomer Sabag who is also from Israel. As soon as I heard about her plans I was filled with all those deep meaningful questions like; Why, When, Where??. So let me hand you over to Hadas. . .

“Honestly I just started planning it 2 weeks ago, at the Georgia sea kayak symposium, while talking to Nigel Dennis about my dreams…… and Newfoundland came up….cause its such a different place to when we come from. All those icebergs, whales, bears, birds, wolfs, and most important lots of small towns along the way.

I think what makes a trip the best best best are the people you meet along the way of your journey, so first of all is the partner I choose to go with ….must be some one I can feel will share the same interests, and will teach me from his knowledge and experience. and maybe I can even teach him some of what I know…???? He must be a fun, and nature loving person, with a kind heart. and ya,,,, until I don’t find that one I don’t come up with a new dream, soooo now I found the right partner for the next adventure… its time to start planning. “

Well, that says a lot for Tomer eh? She also added in that he was; a strong paddler, responsible, fun patient, warm, friendly, happy and a very positive person. Where do they hide these guys anyway?? Ok, sorry for the interruption, back to Hadas. . .

“We are both doing different researching; finding out weather, season, best rout (I think it’ll be clock wise as usual), wild life we will encounter, tides, currents, trying to find some local sea kayakers we would love to meet on the way, the best put in for the first day, history, nature, culture, and of course trying to find sponsors (since we are only sea kayakers and not yet multimillionaires), to help make this the best it can be, so we don’t have to sleep in the cold and wear our Israeli hot weather paddling clothing we already own. hhh. Even though it’ll still be really cold we are planning to start in mid may 2007 to paddle around 2700 km., in about two and a half months…”

Hadas is an NDK sponsored paddler and often paddles a Greenlander Pro which struck me as a unique choice. I asked her about that; “For Kamchatka I used a 3 peace Romany. On the Japan I used an Explorer, but yes my favorite is the Greenlander., its like it was made for my body, and fits perfect. I think its a fantastic fit for women, but even some tall big men in our club love it. first of all it looks most sexy on the water, thin, low deck, with pointy ends. beautiful. it does have a bit less room in it because of the low deck but Nigel promised to bring forward the bulk head for me this time, so no worries on that. and ,,,, its fast,,,and can surf the most gentle following sea before wind picks up to the speed that all other kayaks can surf. I love how it edges,and I love playing with wait shifting so the nose doesn’t go under in big swell. but then again, I like that it can do that in surf. Still I think the explorer is an perfect kayak for expedition, for men and that why Tomer is going to use that one.”

She also said she hates white kayaks even though she seems to always paddle them. Funny, I tell that same story about blue kayaks!! Must be some karmic retribution. . “Yes you may paddle to your hearts content, but you must do it in a kayak of the wrong color. . .” Life! And speaking of “life” this is the question I asked purely for myself, “Why?” What does an expedition like her upcoming trip to Newfoundland do for her head? How does it effect her personally? I asked Hadas what expeditioning means for her. . .

“I love love love going on these expeditions cause first and most important. . . its the best way I found to diet!!!!!! second, I always loved traveling, seeing new places and meeting new friends that are far from our small island in the middle east called Israel. traveling gives me energy and as much as its hard work on the way, it always bring a smile to my face, and when I’m happy everyone around me is too. I would like to hope.hhh???? I love telling stories of different cultures and experiences. I love building a tent and living in it,much more then in a house. love not using toilet paper,hhhhhh!!!!!! only what nature gives. I hate getting into the tent stinky so love bathing in salt water, even though it gives you major salt water rash on expedition. I like finding special shells and eating sea weed. I absolutely love the sounds of nature and its colors. and of course of course, I get adrenaline rush from the great big seas and waters. And I am quite happy and surprised when I get to the right place at the end of a long paddling day. where is the right place????? mmmmmm ….. every day somewhere else I guess.”

*Thank you to Hadas, Tomer, & Josh at Terra Santa. Oh, and an almost unrelated “hats off” to Jeff Allen for taking that picture of Hadas while in Japan, that one with her hiding behind all those tentacles… no one should be able to be beautiful while standing behind tentacles!! Glad you caught it on film or no one would believe it!! What? don’t believe me? Click here. Oh, and thanks to Hadas & Tomer for todays pictures as well. Next comes the headstands. . .

Lake Michigan was lumpy. For some reason I kept finding myself being drawn further out. That’s the evil of a lumpy day. The sea, or in this case the lake seems to want to suck you out into wilds. You have to glance back every so often just to be sure you’re staying fairly near the shore. And with the strong north wind, to be sure you were not slowly slipping down to Chicago.

All in all a great day bouncing on the chocolate brown waves. It reminded me of Willie Wanka. “It’s actually churning my chocolate. But it’s the only way if you want it just right!”

So here’s a few pictures of JB and Silbs playing in the creamy brown water. Of course since we had an audience on the beach Silbs decided to demonstrate a wet exit in surf. . . Bad, bad toad!