Posts Tagged ‘wisconsin’

Preposterous, when you think of the time that each has spent.
Words heaven sent and truly meant to show
Old, may I sit down here and learn today?
I’ll hear all you say.
I won’t go away.
– dexy’s midnight runners

So, I was driving along just west of my home town here in Wisconsin and caught the glimpse of a boat out of there corner of my eye.  Kayakers know this sensation well.  We can spot a small hull at midnight from 500 yards away while traveling at the speed of sound.  I drove by it the first time around not wanting to let my crazy curiosity get the best of me.  The second time by, I knew I had to stop.    Read the rest of this entry »

Long as I remember The rain been coming down.
Clouds of myst’ry pouring Confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, Trying to find the sun;
And I wonder, Still I wonder, Who’ll stop the rain. – ccr

After a successful day of rolling on Thursday, you wouldn’t be surprised if Mary wanted to get back out and lock in her roll the following morning.  Now, some could say that the weather didn’t cooperate but I’d say it did exactly what it should have done.  It upped the ante… 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 »

I was hungry and I’m hungry still
And now it’s pouring rain
I look o.k. but I’ve been feeling ill
And now it’s pouring rain
– bob geldof

Yesterday we had flash flood warnings in our area, but that didn’t stop us from getting out for a bit of a paddle!  Heavy rains and flooding are getting to be typical for early June in our part of Wisconsin.  It’s defiantly a climate change, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you why.  Whatever the reason it’s been flooding pretty regularly since the ’90s in our area.  The local lake has been so flooded that the state DNR finally incorporated a permanent drain!  Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

“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 »