Archive for the ‘My Paddling’ Category

*Please listen to the doors for 24.3 seconds before watching this video or reading this post.. You pick the tune.

Now I absolutely refuse to comment on this image or the guy in the red shirt.  It’s more than my life is worth!.. What I can say is that anyone involved in the outdoor recreation industry or for that matter any businesses interested in how to make social media work for them, should know these folks.  You can start by watching the  “Boots on the Ground” is the first of a series of “unofficial” social media panel discussion here.  Besides if you watch it, you won’t have to listen to me tell you the same stuff. As they say it’s easier to to bring the mountain to… or climb to.. or those who buy Mohammad a beer will certainly… Anyway, I forgot.  But the point of this blog was that I’m deleting my KayakQuixotica Twitter account in favor of my Skillet Creek Twitter account.. It’s just that well.. you know.. It may be a bit too hyper-local for some.. but even most of my outdoor life is well, hyper local…

* Yes, I did steal this screen shot from the video and may burn in hell for an indefinite period of time.  If however if you are the owner of this video and you’d like to save my soul or have me remove this image, please speak now.

Free as a bird,
it’s the next best thing to be.
Free as a bird.
– beatles

It’s almost New Year’s Day again.  That means it’s time for the annual Fog Bowl at Lake Columbia in Portage, Wisconsin.  The fog bowl is the day when ice locked kayakers around Wisconsin finally crack and  decide to take  any open water they can get.  This is it. Lake Columbia is actually a large cooling pond for the big Columbia coal fired power plant that serves much of the area.  The horseshoe shaped pond is about a mile long and about half as wide.  Water exits the plant on one side at nearly 90f and cools as it flows around the “U” to the intake on the other side.  Read the rest of this entry »

Taking a break from walking our kayaks down the Wisconsin River…

Paddling down the Lower Wisconsin River is one of the most popular trips in our area.  Walking down the river is another less popular option. Of course most people,  most sane people, run the Wisconsin in early summer. Earlier in the year the water is higher, the current is faster and the hot summer sun makes an occasional wade across a sand bar a joy.  I on the other hand, am simply horrid at doing things the way they’re normally done.  For good and bad, this personal defect usually sets me up for some unique experiences.  The reward is simply being right there in the moment which is often harder to achieve than one might think.

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i can’t walk on water with these dirty feet – Stephen Speaks

Every so often your Monday goes nuclear and you just have to do other more pressing things than blog.  Still I thought I’d break away for a moment to share a picture from our little adventure down the Wisconsin River.  The funny thing about the trip was that we really spent almost as much time walking as we did paddling.  Have you ever walked your kayak down a shallow river in the middle of nowhere while the rain poured down on you and the wind howled around the trees?  Cool isn’t it?!  More later…

This should be fun… cold… and wet…. Beginning tomorrow morning and through the weekend Mary and I will be taking our first paddling trip down the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway.  Our goal is simply to enjoy the trip and see how far we can travel in the 2.5 days we have.  The route is about 85 miles in total but Mary has never spent so much time in a kayak… so well see how it goes!  Along the way we’ll be Twittering away and posting pics through DevilsLakeWisconsin.com and my Wisconsin Travel twitter called “BluffNotes”.  You are more than welcome to follow along if you like while we spend a couple days promoting our area!  Just go here (to the blog) or click here to follow Bluffnotes if you like…

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Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
– pink floyd

O.K., so I have to give a shout out to Sharon, Alec and the gang since I was so mean to them recently.. oh, and because they used the word “caguole” in their blog which is at least 45 points in paddle-blogger scrabble.  (There’s a bonus for using a real words that sound made up outside of the paddling world)  Meanwhile I’m still planning to paddle… Well, by planning I mean loosely considering what I’d need to paddle, down the Lower Wisconsin in the next week or so.  It always comes down to where the child will go.  Yeah, he could go along of course, but as the song says, “to everything there is a season..”.  Sometimes it’s the season to leave little Billy at grandmas.

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I just heard that whistle blow. Gonna go down the river once more.
Well, I’ve got my bag and I’m ready to go. Gonna go down the river once more.
- Kinston Trio

The lower Wisconsin was a canoe trip that almost made Justine Curgenven’s  up-coming DVD.  It’s certainly a legendary paddle trip around here.  As I stood on this ridge looking down into the valley I suddenly wondered how I could fit it in myself before the snow flies.  Kayaking the Wisconsin probably doesn’t quite live up to  Wisconsin’s “Canoeing Heritage” Meme but still…