Posts Tagged ‘lake michigan’

As I write this 16 year old Abby Sunderland is floating somewhere in the Indian ocean on a sailboat without a mast.  Apparently she’s fine out there and will need to hold out  another 24 hours or so for rescue.   Here in Wisconsin, 9 year old Sofia Khan of Chicago was not so lucky.  The search for her on Lake Michigan was suspended and reclassified as a recovery yesterday.  Abby was in the middle of the ocean, alone, and taking on terrible risks.  Sofia was with her family enjoying a day at the beach.  Read the rest of this entry »

Say you don’t need no diamond ring and I’ll be satisfied
Tell me that you want the kind of thing that money just can’t buy
I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love
-beatles

I don’t know about you, but I need a vacation.  Thankfully tomorrow morning we’ll be heading back up to Point Beach State Forest on the coast of Lake Michigan for a few days R & R.  Sounds like the weather may be mixed, but hey, if we get some waves out of it I’ll be happy.

The Point Beach event called, “Kayak Week” is hosted by a group of paddlers from the Two Rivers, WI area.  It was this annual gathering of area kayakers that actually brought me into Wisconsin paddling “fold”.   Back then there was an amazing diversity of paddlers who showed up for a variety of local paddling events.   There was always something going on, and someone to paddle with or learn from.  Of course that was back before the days of  liability paranoia that put a choke hold on social kayaking. I hear all the time how these sort of free-wheeling gatherings have fallen victim to the hemorrhoidal area of  lawsuit fears, insurance & sanctioning debates that often burn more energy in a group than actual paddling.

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“Maybe there’s something over there!”  Nope.  The running joke of the weekend was that the most recent 1 footer to go under our hulls must have been at least a “4″.  In the end, for students looking to upgrade their coaching level to an L4 the weekend was pretty much a wash out. As a cruel joke nature provided a beautiful weekend for paddling instead of the nasty one we were all hoping for.   Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got a phone conference with a client coming up in about an hour and all sorts of other businessy bits to deal with today… so all you get for stopping by today (at least for now) is this photograph of my Rockpool Alaw Bach waiting to take me on an early morning paddle up the Lake Michigan coastline toward the Point Beach lighthouse.

Sometimes a photograph is almost like being there. Sometimes a photograph just clarifies where you really are.  Oh well, you know what they say, “Visualize the future you desire, then  make it happen”.  Nothing like a Thursday morning platitude to get the day started.  On the other hand I can’t help but remember what Emerson said, “When there is no vision, people perish.”  Emerson, all the inspiration, none of the BS! And with that… Have a flippin’ fantastic day…

“Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing what he read made him mad.”
– George Bernard Shaw

I’m still catching up on photos from the last couple weeks.   I’ve just uploaded a gallery of images from Kayak Week in Two Rivers.   I’m sure you know by now my eye gets drawn into the strangest places sometimes.  On the way up we were detoured through this little town with the most dramatic of little cemeteries.  The Wind farm in the background just made it seem all the more surreal.  And then there was the “World’s Biggest 6 pack”.. Distractions, distractions!!! In addition to our gallery, check out the gallery at the NE Wisconsin Kayaker’s website as well.  Now oddly enough we are heading back up to Two Rivers this Saturday…. to find a cemetery.. Strange.

* Just a note on the gallery. You’ll see a little box at the very right of the slideshow gallery tool bar. Click it to go full screen.

I’m sitting in a big comfy checkered couch at Schroeder’s Red Bank Coffeehouse in downtown Two Rivers, Wisconsin.  We managed to leave home yesterday at noon exactly as planned.  What was not planned was our drive down to Rutabaga to impulsively buy a new P&H Scorpio.  The Scorpio is the plastic version of the Cetus and a perfect addition to our small fleet!

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Theres always something happening
And its usually quite loud
– madness

Alright. It’s 5am and we’re about 7 hours away from launch. The plan is to be pulling out of the driveway at noon today for the 3 hour trip up to Point Beach State Park near Two Rivers, Wisconsin. All that big stuff that you always remember to pack, is packed. Today we have to remember all the things you always forget. You know.. the stuff you find out later you really, really needed and should have never forgotten in the first place. Oh and by the way, our title today is the chord progression from the song “Our House” by the 80′s band, “Madness” which just happens to be appropriate this morning…

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