The Ikkatsu Project
Published May 8, 2012 | 
You’ve probably heard by now that debris from last year’s tragic Japanese earthquake & tsunami has begun to arrive along the coastline of North America. It’s fair to say that a ghost ship and a Harley Davidson motorcycle were not on top of the expected debris list! While newsworthy, they are not what has people worried. The scary part is that millions of tons of debris of all sizes, some of it microscopic, was swept into the ocean during the tsunami disaster and an unknown but likely massive amount of this flotsam, is heading straight for some of North America’s most pristine coastline. That’s where the Ikkatsu Project comes in. Continue reading
Posted in Enviroment, Expeditions, Paddling, People, Quixotica | 
Enviroment, Ikkatsu, Jason Goldstein, Ken Campbell, olympic coast, pollution, Steve Weileman, washington | 
Leave a commentBackyard 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 CommentSustainability of deep-sea fisheries?
Published September 10, 2011 | 
All dead all dead / All the dreams we had
And I wonder why I still live on
All dead all dead /And alone I’m spared
My sweeter half instead
All dead and gone / all dead
- queen
I’ve not eaten fish since the early 90s. I like some fish actually. Here in Wisconsin every Friday is fish gluttony day with the traditional “Friday Fish-Fry” on offer at every restaurant worth it’s salt. This is though, the oceans are in big trouble and we’ve known it for a long time. Like so many other big environmental problems, we can’t seem to get our minds around it, so we just keep contributing to it. The early 90s collapse of the Northern Cod fishery in eastern Canada was a wake up call. In the end it didn’t matter if you were for or against a moratorium, there just we rent any fish left. Of course globally we’ve not learned much from that nightmare either.
These days fish can’t even catch a break at the bottom of the sea. Today I was doing a bit of heavy reading with the Marine Policy’s Sustainability of deep-sea fisheries paper. I’m still not going to be eating fish any time soon. BTW, if you’re not into heavy reading, just grab the first and very last paragraph. Oh, and look at the fun charts and graphs… That will just about cover it.
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
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 CommentMega Squid Versus The Giant Lake Stugeon
Published April 29, 2011 | 
Now somehow (That I can’t even begin to explain!) this story weaves its way from Australia on to Charleston, South Carolina and through the mind of Moulton Avery, before landing on the blog of Helen Wilson before totally spinning out of control and landing here. Here at Quixotica, where I dare Moulton to bring his evil Humbolt Squid with their tentacles, barb-wire type hooks, and fearsome parrot-like beaks to battle my genetically modified, radioactive & radio controlled Giant Lake sturgeon. I’ll soon have those squid sorted!
If all of this has a sort of Mystery Science Theatre feel about it, well it should. Because I think a lot of people spent the frozen winter months watching movies like Mega Shark Versus The Giant Octopus & the amazing sequel, Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus. Kayaker types mainly. All I can say is that the careers of Lorenzo Lamas & Debbie Gibson has taken an amazing turn in recent years. Chances are they will be seen in This Is The Sea 5 battling various rubber suited monsters from the cockpits of a fully armed Tahe Marines. If William Shatner is any guide, these 2 will soon be up for the ACTRA Montreal Award of Excellence within a year and on their way to Emmys.
Now you have to admit, this scene from MSVGO is better than anything Cecil B. DeMille could have pulled off in his wildest dreams…
Yeah, that’s the way we do it downtown!
Thinking of the movie Blue Velvet yesterday, brought back to me the idea that under the veneer of our normal life often lies a dark, seedy underbelly. These days however, the dark and seedy are much more vocal than they used to be. It’s hard to ignore the calls to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, to roll back clean water regulations here in my state, or to defund programs for the poor, sick and elderly all across the country. It goes on and on. I’m not the least bit surprised that AL Gore went a little off the note cards to call “bullsh*t” on climate deniers during his speech in Aspen. He’s been at this for years, and let’s face it.. It’s been like trying to teach a lemur geometry. When people don’t want to know something, they’ll perform amazing acrobatics not to know it. These days this serious issue, like so many others, has descended into a fruitless game of “gotcha”. It’s frankly a waste of time and energy. When it comes to the environment, the bottom line is that if you are arguing for the right to pollute and pump chemicals into our air.. you’re already on the wrong side of everything decent about humanity, even if global warming were a bunch of hogwash.
Continue reading →