Bottom of the Yellow
Published June 30, 2011 | 
The Wisconsin River travels some 500 miles from the Michigan border until it joins the Mississippi river near Prairie du Chien. Over that distance the river drops about 1000 feet is interrupted by 26 hydro-electric dams. Those 26 dams provide about the same amount of electricity as needed just by the city of Madison each year. Two of these dams sit on the river just north of us and create the Petenwell and Castle Rock Flowages which are some of the largest inland lakes in the state. Castle Rock & Petenwell are popular outdoor recreation areas, but they still retain a lot of untouched shoreline making them a great destination for area paddlers.
Yesterday we decided take our kayaks to Castle Rock. The Castle Rock Flowage covers 16,640 acres of which we’ve paddled only a few. Buckhorn state park is located along the shore and provides a variety of boat launches as well as other amenities including a campground and great hiking trails as well. On this visit, we wanted to explore the quiet, marshy area where the Yellow River makes it’s way into the big lake. The hiking trails weren’t gonna do it! Continue reading
Join Us at Grand Marais!
Published June 29, 2011 | 
If you live anywhere in the Midwest and love to sea kayak, if you want to learn more AND if you want to get a way for a few days and explore one of the most beautiful sections of Lake Superior’s coast line.. Come join us up at the 2011 Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium July 13th thru July 17th in Grand Marais, MI. It’s a little last-minute I know, but life is an adventure. Besides, if you let them know I sent you when you register, you’ll get a $50 gift card from Downwind Sports! Call it a reward for actually taking something I say seriously! LOL! Continue reading
Boatloads of Discontent
Published June 26, 2011 | 
Wisconsin, like in so many other places around the country and around the world, is facing an abrupt change in how we how we treat others and our environment, all in the name of money as usual. At the moment, those who choose individualism and corporate profit are in charge. The folks interested in a more social view, workers rights, and concern for the environment are finding themselves left adrift and carrying signs.. Things will change. Everything is cyclical. What bothers me personally are the folks who live on the fringe who really have no voice and will simply suffer even more while the rest of us spin in a holding pattern of debate. Yesterday at our local state park, our freshly minted Governor showed up to take part in the 100 year celebration. It was clear pretty quickly that the majority of the people attending the event were not fans, but were there to protest.. Even on the water… Continue reading
100 Years
Published June 25, 2011 | 
Today we celebrate the centennial of Devil’s Lake State Park here in Baraboo, Wisconsin. If you’re not from the central part of the US it’s hard to explain what Devil’s Lake means to folks here in the Mid-West, other than to say that 1.8 million visitors enter the park each year. That means if Devil’s Lake were a National Park, it would (according to Madison.com) rank number 12 between Glacier National Park (2.2 million) in Montana and Joshua Tree National Park (1.4 million). The park is popular among not only weekend beach goers but is also well-known for its many miles of hiking trails, rock climbing opportunities, mountain biking, and of course, paddling. Continue reading
Posted in My Paddling, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Recreation, Paddling | 
devils lake, wisconsin | 
Leave a commenti walk
Published June 24, 2011 | 
I know every trail by heart. I walk every day. Well, practically every day. If I didn’t, I fear I’d lose my mind. For some folks that’s a joke.. an over statement, a bit of light humor. I can’t say as I always see it that way. It seems to me that each and every day for longer than I care to consider have been stacked with far too many decisions. When none of the solutions are particularly appealing and it seems like there is nothing left to do.. I walk.
I know every trail by heart. I walk every day…
Lumix DMC-TS3 At First Blush
Published June 23, 2011 | 
This wild rose shot is one of the first shots I took with my new Panasonic Lumix TS3. I just set the camera on “normal” mode (as soon as I figured out where to do that!) and went out the door. The shot is about as un-edited as possible. It’s cropped and re-sized for the blog, otherwise it’s just as it came out of the camera. As paddlers our first concern is often how “waterproof” a new camera is, but what’s the point if they don’t take decent pictures? I took the camera to my favorite haunts and shot a lot of images that I’ve shot before. Same subjects, same spots, same cloudy weather. I can easily find comparable shots I’ve taken with my digital SLRs, various compacts and even old Waterproof Optios. At first blush, I’m pretty content. Continue reading
Listen
Published June 22, 2011 | 
I was thinking about eye candy the other day. I was out paddling in a marsh on the edge of my local lake and felt the urge to take a picture. That’s how we’ve come to react to the world around us these days.. snap a shot, tweet a tweet… I feel it all the time myself! Thing is, the only thing I had on me was my iPhone. Still, maybe I could get something. I carefully took it out of the drybag and took a few pics.. You definitely need to be creative with an iPhone since it’s picture quality is pretty well, not so good. But as I looked around at the world I wanted to capture, I realized there was nothing much to look at. Visually it was nothing but tall grass and some fallen trees. Nothing striking or really all that interesting. That urge I felt to capture the image, was simply my mind misreading a sensual que. It took a moment to sort out. What made the spot so note-worthy at that very moment wasn’t what I was seeing at all. It was the sounds. Continue reading
Posted in Enviroment, My Paddling, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Recreation, Paddling, Photography | devils lake, nature, wisconsin | 1 Comment
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