Posts Tagged ‘door county’

I was caught in the suction
By a face like a truncheon
I was down upon one knee
Stroking her vanity – e. costello

We’re back from the symposium at Door County here in Wisconsin.  We’ve only got a couple days of “down time” before we head back up to Grand Marais, MI for the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium. For the moment let me just share a few pictures of the best kayak art work I saw at Door.  This Valley Anas Acuta was at it’s base black or very, very, very dark blue with lots of purple and red glitter.  Lightning stripes were inlaid into the gelcoat.  I could be a fussy pain in the bum and critique the detailing but all in all this is a darn pretty boat!  Read the rest of this entry »

Life is just a bowl of cherries / Don’t take it serious / Life’s too mysterious
You work, You save,You worry so /But you can’t take your dough
When you go, go, go – gershwin

I’m heading out this morning to drive (About 5 hrs) to Door County for the annual Door County Sea Kayak Symposium.  Door County is more than just open water and lighthouses of course… they’ve also got this weird fixation with Cherries & Fish Boils

Happy Monday!  Today I’m going to extract the Gear Pod from it’s under water tomb to see how it survived 2 days of total submersion.  The final review will be tomorrow.  However, if you follow along on Facebook you may get a bit of an advance look later in the day when we pull it out.

For today however, I want to share with you a trip report from the recent Washington Island Paddle Marathon Race held in Door County, WI., on June 19th.  Participants paddled a 22 mile course around the island which is located at the very tip of Wisconsin’s famous Door County peninsula. This report was written by Gary Simon of Milwaukee.  I like Gary’s report because it’s not so much about “racing” but about participation and learning which to me is the really important… and fun part of any event.   Read the rest of this entry »

“Mr. Bones? Mr. Bones?
How do you feel, Mr. Bones?”
“Rattlin’!” “
Mr. Bones feels rattlin’. Ha ha. That’s a good one.”
ahhh, vaudeville!

Door county is the emaciated “thumb” of Wisconsin. Just ask any Wisconsinite where Door county is. They will hold up the back of their hand with their palm facing away, stretch out their thumb, point to it, and say, “This is Door county. Of course if your thumb actually looked like Door County you’d be a skeleton. Door county covers about 2,370 square miles, of that, most is water in the form of lakes and swamps. Door is surrounded on 3 sides by Lake Michigan and has over 300 miles of shoreline.  If it were not for a grumpy collection of anti-kayaker types it would be a paddlers paradise.

Read the rest of this entry »

You better think (think) think about what you’re trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free
Oh freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom), freedom, yeah freedom
Freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom), freedom, ooh freedom
Hey, think about it
You, think about it
-aretha franklin

So now that our time is coming into focus, you know. .”things to see, people to do. . .” Mr Blades and I could finally talk about pinning down our first day for the Door County Circumnavigation.  The one thing we know for sure is that we need to arrive back in Rowley’s Bay for the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium on Thursday , July 10th. Of course since it’s close to home, and I’ve become much less “plan” oriented. . . I really didn’t take into account that just 130 miles is STILL 130 MILES. Suddenly I’m playing with my calculator. . .

At 130 miles you need 4-5 days. At 4 days you have to make at least 32 miles (51km) per day. For an average pair of paddlers that comes down to 4, 8-9 hour days.  So to make it all work out we pretty much have to have 4 long days of good weather. 5 days takes the pressure off, and 6 days makes it leisurely. Of course it looks like we’ll have 4 days tops. Chances are we will have to make a decision about Washington Island on the Tip of Door Peninsula. If we’re doing well we go to Washington, if we need to make up time we’ll skip it.

The other thing we have to deal with of course is sleeping. Door County has a very mixed reaction to paddlers. In some areas it is very rural and laid back, in other areas the shoreline is built up with vacation homes and condos. Many of those folks are not all that pleased with kayakers. (Apparently we clog the intakes on their yachts!) Of course the plan is to commando camp along the way. Hell, it’s summer. . who needs a tent unless the weather goes bad?! However I also put out a few emails to local paddlers looking for tips and ideas about good places to snooze.

Some of the cliffs in Door

Then of course is the weather, the land and the “sea”. Winds tend to come in from the north west around here so we don’t usually have the kind of waves that build up on miles of open water. There are no tides to speak of. Still, weather happens. Most of Door County has nice sandy beaches or wooded shores, yet some areas are rocky and other areas are high white cliffs.

In the end even a short trip must be thought through with the same seriousness as a much longer trip. First you cover all your bases before you launch, then you get down to enjoying a few days on the water. And that’s the whole point.