In Crease
Published September 22, 2011 | 
A few days back I wrote about how a simple crease in your drygear’s latex seal could cause your hands to go numb or even swell up. Today while paddling day 4 of my 100 miles around Devil’s Lake, that’s exactly what happened. As I was getting ready to go, one of the park rangers came up to chat with me. Of course I was spending more time paying attention to the conversation than paying attention to my gear. By the time I was half way around the lake, my right hand began to go numb. I rolled up the other bit of the sleeve and as you can see… my gasket was bunched up. Not much mind you, but enough. After I took the pic, I readjusted the laytex and within about 5 minutes my hand was back to normal. Amazing how just a little thing could make such a big difference!
Pesky Gaskets
Published September 19, 2011 | 
As the summer fades to autumn and both the air and water temperatures begin to drop, we’re once again faced with the prospect of dealing with those pesky latex gaskets. Now it’s my position that latex gaskets are not uncomfortable if worn properly. For the moment let’s take these pesky wrist gaskets for example. They were causing a bit of swelling in the back of my hands if I wore them for hours on end. I stretched them out AGAIN for 48 hours with little effect. I was thinking I may have to trim them. Tight gaskets can sure ruin your day on the water!
Well, before you get cutting, there is one last thing to check. Something so silly that it’s easy to overlook… Are the gaskets rolling or folding over on your wrists? Sometimes it happens when you first put them on, sometimes they will work roll back over time. (That’s what happened in my case). If so, simply rolling them back out and removing any folds, creases, or other pressure points may do the trick. The latex should be smooth against your skin. Also, make sure to pull them back on your wrists far enough that the movement of your hands does not start them rolling back down again. For me, that was the solution. Nothing like applying a little patience and observation before getting out the knife!! Anyway, if you’re having trouble with your new gaskets. . . even after you’ve tried stretching them. . . make sure they aren’t just getting rolled up or folded before you get out the knife. One thing about cutting your gaskets, if you get it wrong you can’t put it back…
Backyard Adventure
Published September 19, 2011 | 
What amounts to a dream anymore?
A crude device; A veil on our eyes
A simple plan we’d be different from the rest
And never resign to a typical life – broken bells
It’s raining this morning and not quite 60 f. The weather seers say that the day will turn warm and sunny… eventually. Oh well, if I’m going to get my paddle time in today, I need to do it right away this morning. This will count as day two of my “100 miles to winter” paddle to celebrate the 100th anniversary of my local state park. I think it’s cool that in a month of days I’ll be able to see the world pass from the greens of summer, through the jubilant colors of fall and then in the end, to the charcoal sketched environment of late fall, all from the seat of my kayak. It should be a fun little backyard adventure, only requiring an hours paddle time over about 35 days. For the most part I’ll be posting the log over at devilslakewisconsin.com. I fear many über kayakers will find it a bit silly, a bit “quixotic” if you will, but I look forward to having an opportunity to spend the next month talking about paddling and our amazing state park with folks may not yet suffer the addictions. 
OK, time to head out for day 2.
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Posted in Enviroment, My Paddling, My Weird Life, Outdoor Recreation, Paddling, Quixotica | 
devils lake, wisconsin | 
1 CommentWisconsin River Pics
Published September 18, 2011 | 
Now, the thing is.. we probably could have stopped to climb Ferry Bluff yesterday. I mean, we did actually did make the boat landing in Arena long before dark. On the other hand, it’s hard to guess how much time it will take to get from one point to the next, especially this time of year. That’s just the way it is on the lower Wisconsin. Will the river be flowing fast, making our planned day trip take only a couple of hours? Will the river be low and slow causing the same distance to take most of a day to cover? I think we were in the middle this time around. Everyone scraped bottom from time to time, but not quite everyone actually had to get out and walk!
As we always seem to say, everyone had a great/spectacular/fantastic time, and we did. Nature has a way of making that happen. You start with a bunch of strangers getting safety instruction on a beach and then within a very short time on the water, you find the participants quickly forming into social sub-groups that will happily keep themselves entertained throughout the day. Of course, it helps when the group is mostly women… (Guys often take a lot longer to break out of their shells.)
Anyway, let me stop rambling and share some pics…
Back to the Wisconsin
Published September 16, 2011 | 
Tomorrow morning I’ll be joining a group of paddlers on a day trip down the Wisconsin river put on by Rutabaga Paddle Sports Shop of Madison, Wisconsin. The Lower Wisconsin State Riverway is one of the state’s most popular destinations providing some 90 miles of paddling from below the dam at Sauk Prairie south-west until reaching its confluence with the Mississippi near Wyalusing state park. Our day trip will only cover about 14 river miles, but should offer plenty of opportunities to enjoy all that the Wisconsin has to offer. Continue reading
The Devil’s Work
Published September 15, 2011 | 
This Sunday locally we host the annual Devil’s Challenge Triathlon at Devil’s Lake State Park. I’m a bystander. The 5k run and the 15 mile bike ride would be fine.. the quarter-mile swim on the other hand, would not. I actually didn’t learn to swim realistically until well after I learned to kayak. In fact, one of the reasons I started kayaking was that it allowed me to indulge my love of water WITHOUT needing to swim. In fact, learning to roll is pretty good simulation of snorkeling. You simply put on the dive mask, roll, see the world, then roll back up. Over the last couple of years I’ve started to swim laps at the pool. Who knows, maybe we’ll do that triathlon next year.. OR we could just tell them to dump the swimming and replace it with a kayaking section… I mean let’s face it swimming in a cold lake in September is the devil’s work!!
Tempest Teach Test
Published September 13, 2011 | 
Last Saturday I decided to leave my kayak at home and use one of our student boats, the Tempest 165, to coach the intro to sea kayaking class. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when you take a kayak out to test paddle, you can sometimes be blinded to certain qualities of the boat simply by over focusing on reviewing the it in the first place. I’m not sure how that happens other than you are somehow out of your normal element when you test paddle and it can change your perceptions. I think that doing something you do all the time in your personal kayak and simply switching boats, then getting on to business can somehow allow certain things to stand out much quicker simply because you’re not really looking for them. So for what it’s worth… Continue reading
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