The kayak gods were against us yesterday as Jeff Buchman, Heather Adams, and I embarked to circumnavigate Honeoye Lake. I awoke to birds outside my window and thought, "Wow, it sure is bright outside for being 6:30am... ... CRAP! It's 7:45am!" Already 15 minutes late to meet Rob in Trumansburg (a 25 minute drive from Ithaca). As it turned out, Rob couldn't join us anymore, so I was able to give the Rochesterians a heads-up and meet them a half hour later. No stress. 

An hour into the drive I got a call from Heather, who was already at Sandy Bottom Park- our launch spot at the north end of the lake. Apparently there were signs posted near the water warning of hazardous water conditions due to an algal bloom. When Jeff and I arrived, we decided to brave the green and paddle anyway! 

Warning, it's a long one. I wanted to be explicit so I would actually remember the things I learned! See previous post for Heather's account of the trip!
  
Ok, it's taken me about 15 minutes to figure out how to start this post so as to accurately profess my excitement about the past weekend. I guess I'll just start from the beginning! This weekend, Heather Adams (fellow Rough Rider from Rochester) and I headed up to Bracebridge, Canada, for the first annual Ontario Greenland Camp, hosted by LearnToKayak, Kayak Ways, and The Complete Paddler. 

Day 1: The Drive Up & First Impressions
After an overwhelmingly stressful week of classes, work, TAing, and homework, I departed Ithaca on Friday morning for Rochester. Upon arrival at Heather's house, we loaded my boat onto her car and started the 6 hour drive to Bracebridge, Canada! The drive up was fairly uneventful, and we made it to Camp Tamarack around 5pm. We were feeling a little daunted about meeting a whole new group of kayakers, but we were very excited to meet so many Greenland enthusiasts and kayak lovers like ourselves! After a warm welcome by some of the camp organizers, we settled into our bunk beds (a strange experience since I never went to camp as a kid) and headed over to the main cabin for dinner.

Day 2 AM: Yoga-for-Kayakers, Greenland Strokes, and Rolling Demo
The next day I got up super early for some yoga-for-kayakers. Cheri had us doing all kinds of funny maneuvers on the ground to mimic rolling in our boats. I can only imagine how goofy we all looked, but she kept a straight face! After breakfast we headed over to the beach where all the kayaks were ready to play!