Finally!
Published April 19, 2013 | 
Yesterday we finally able to get out onto our local lake (Devil’s Lake State Park). Here it is mid way through April and the ice is just now breaking up and melting off of the lake. Well, I guess I’ve been spoiled, it’s not really unusual to wait until mid-April to see open water here in central Wisconsin, but it has been a few years since winter has hung on so long. Continue reading
Duck Season, Kayak Season
Published April 12, 2013 | 
It’s spring in Wisconsin and as is typical this time of year, we’re all complaining about the weather. Me too. Not because I think spring is late or that winter is clinging on too long. I know it’s not. In fact, it’s a pretty average Wisconsin spring. No, I can happily complain about an average Wisconsin spring, just because it feels like I’ve waited forever to get back outside in my kayak. So yesterday, it really didn’t matter that the rain was coming down in mats or that the air temperature was clinging somewhere just above freezing. I’d found some open water and I was going kayaking…. dammit! Continue reading
First Day 2013
Published January 2, 2013 | 
Well, it’s Wednesday. The holidays are over and it’s time to get back to work. Great! I need a rest! We closed out the holidays by spending the last day of the year snowshoeing then we got up on New Year’s day to paddle at the annual Fog Bowl. We got about an hour to rest. (I spent that hour running to my grandmother’s to fill her birdfeeder!) Then it was off to Devil’s Lake State Park for the evening’s First Day Twilight Snowshoe. Continue reading
Perfect
Published June 27, 2012 | 
It would be better to be cool
It’s not time to be open just yet
A lesson once learned is so hard to forget
Be still my beating heart – sting
Spent the evening recently out paddling on a local wetland. It was, well, perfect. Sometimes everything just comes together. Perfect weather, perfect sunset, perfect clouds, perfect wildlife, perfect everything. You don’t get those moments very often. I guess it’s a good thing you don’t because it keeps you striving for more. It’s the striving that’s important of course. That’s true in anything in life. You just won’t get a lot of “perfect” moments if you aren’t working hard in the background to achieve them. That’s always been a point I’ve found hard to drive home to others sometimes. There’s a lot of work behind most everything good. While I think there is a reason for everything, I also think fate needs a good kick in the pants occasionally! Nothing is given, but sure sometimes you get lucky. Most of the time, that grumpy old man is right, you work hard for everything you get. Even a perfect paddle just as the sun sets. Did I mention that the marsh was drying out and really, really SMELLY!? Perfect, indeed.
Zip It!
Published June 5, 2012 | 
I love that scene in Close Encounters when Richard Dryfus has just completed his massive model of Devil’s Tower in the living room. He leans against the wall, staring in exhaustion at what he had done. I the background you hear an old woman’s voice from a 70s soap opera coming from the tv, “What is wrong with me today?”. I find myself suddenly listening to kick-ass-teen-agst-music and feeling an urge to sky dive and beer-bong Glenlivet! So when I had the oportunity to go spend an afternoon zip lining Easton at Vertical Adventures, I was like, “AWESOME DUDE. I’M SO THERE!” Continue reading
Posted in My Weird Life, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Recreation | 
Vertical Illusions, wisconsin, Zip Line | 
2 CommentsPronoun Trouble
Published April 29, 2012 | 
Wind blew across the sand
He stood alone and he had no plan
And with the last rays of the sun
He screamed aloud, began to run
- BOC.. (dude!)
If you ever want to know what suffering on the water really is, don’t imagine it’s kayaking in the arctic.. No.. it’s competitive rowing! I mean, I actually swept the snow off of my windshield to go watch the first rowing contest in over 100 years take place at Devil’s Lake State Park yesterday morning. [pictures here] These guys were on the water by 8am competing against the likes of MIT (Who you know were just using some form on super sci-fi, invisible hover tech on their boat!) going back and forth across the mile long lake while guys in power boats shouted slogans at them.. Now that’s gotta suck! (Oh, and Go Bucky!) Continue reading
Posted in My Paddling, Outdoor Recreation, Paddling, Quixotica, Random Thoughts | badgers, bucky, rowing, wisconsin | 1 CommentCounting Geese
Published December 13, 2011 | 
It’s a good thing that I only have a couple more days left on my 100 mile paddle at Devil’s Lake State Park, the amount of open water on the lake is shrinking each day. For the moment, the massive number of Canada geese hanging out at the park seem happy with the expanding ice. Geese are commonplace around here of course, and it’s not hard to find someone who hates them for the noise they make and the messes they leave behind. Still, to my mind, anytime we can witness such large numbers of animals in the wild is really a gift. We’ve been there before; bison, passenger pigeons, cranes, just to name a few. It’s just too easy to deem animals as pests and let the hunt begin.. Honestly, I could never imagine humans wiping out Canada geese.. I mean… Seriously?? But history tell us that we should never be too sure of ourselves…
