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"Believe me, my young friend. There is nothing, absolutely nothing,
half so worth doing as simply messing around in boats." 

The Wind in the Willows

Days 19 & 20: Rough Rider Reunion on Lake Ontario

8/7/2014

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Paddling back into the Lake Ontario sunset. Mark, Dave, Janet, and others in the distance
Yesterday evening turned into Rough Riders Reunion 2014. In the wise (and paraphrased) words of Mike Peet: "Paddling like it's 2009!" The turn-out was fantastic (26 boats!), and the waves were apparently the largest of the summer. It was a perfect evening for rock gardening and practicing towed rescues. A bunch of the original Rough Riders were present, including Jeff H, Mike, Steven, Dan, Jeff B x 2, Rita & Garnetta, Sue, Ann-Marie, Nick, Dave, and I. It was also fun to meet some newer (i.e. in the last 3 years, so maybe not so new) members. Matt from Brooklyn was in the area for a couple weeks and recently bought a boat from BayCreek. I'll be in NYC on Monday to visit friends, and he provided some helpful tips for kayaking around the City...

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Day 18: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

8/5/2014

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The Legend of Sleeping Bear (courtesy of NPS)
Long ago, along the Wisconsin shoreline, a mother bear and her two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a raging forest fire. The bears swam for many hours, but eventually the cubs tired and lagged behind. Mother bear reached the shore and climbed to the top of a high bluff to watch and wait for her cubs. Too tired to continue, the cubs drowned within sight of the shore. The Great Spirit Manitou created two islands to mark the spot where the cubs disappeared and then created a solitary dune to represent the faithful mother bear. 

You can see the two islands in the map to the right.
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Day 17: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (no kayaking...)

8/4/2014

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Dune slide at the end of the Grand Sable Falls trail
Last night we crossed the Eastern/Central time zone and realized it was much later expected, so we pulled over and camped in the Squirrel Rapids Picnic Area, halfway between the Apostle Islands (WI) and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (MI). We were up early to the sound of lawn mowing all around us. After a quick stop at a farmstand for veggies and breakfast, we drove across much of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the UP) on Route 28. 

At Pictured Rocks we attempted to find a campsite at the Twelvemile Beach Campground (I'm pretty sure this is where Marika and I stayed 3 years ago), but all the sites were full (on a Monday!). Instead, we headed a bit further east to the Upper Hurricane River campground and snagged a big site where we cooked up an extravagant veggie-full burrito lunch. 

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Day 16: Sea Caves at Sand Island (Apostle Islands)

8/3/2014

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There are 21 Apostle Islands in Lake Superior (on the southwest corner), which were named by French missionaries after the 12 apostles (they clearly couldn't see all 21 islands). The islands were formed by wind wave erosion between ice ages, and were glaciated repeatedly after that. Terraces and wave cut platforms suggest that water levels used to be higher in Lake Superior. Of particular interest are the sea caves found on many of the islands. The Devils Island Formation geology is a red sandstone that formed from rivers depositing sediment thousands of years ago. The sea caves form when waves erode and undercut the base of the cliffs.

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Day 15: Bismarck, Baggage, Bayfield, and Bud Light Lime

8/2/2014

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Early morning #5 billion. After a near miscommunication mishap with the Bismarck baggage agents, I successfully picked up (stole? it was so easy...) Jeff’s luggage before heading east to Fargo. We arrived within a few minutes of each other and booked it across the state of Minnesota in an attempt to arrive at the kayak shop by 4pm. 9 hours later, we arrived at Living Adventures Inc kayak rentals in time to pick up Pierre, the yellow Canadian Current Designs Storm. In Bayfield, we grocery shopped and discovered that Wisconsinites don't eat hummus or pitas (disaster!!!). We noted the intense humidity to which neither of us is accustomed. We went for a 2 hour evening paddle, launching from the Apostle Islands Marina and paddling south along the peninsula to Pikes Bay. The sandstone cliffs here are nearly vertical and bright red.

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Majestic Clay Cliffs at Chimney Bluff State Park

11/7/2010

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Surf rangers bobbing up and down on the waves in front of the Chimney Bluffs.
Tired wipers pushed aside clumps of sleet and rain drops landing on my windshield. My toasty seat heater made it hard to believe the thermometer that bounced between 35 and 39 degrees as I made the two hour trip north from Ithaca to Sodus Bay.

I met the rest of the Rough Riders at a launch site just east of Chimney Bluffs State Park at 10am. We shivered as we pulled on our extra warm kayaking gear. The only one without a dry suit, I was lucky that Dennis had an extra one. Although it was meant for surfing and looked goofy next to the kayaker dry suits, it fit well and kept me quite warm!

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Greenland Kayak Camp: Guest Blog by Heather Adams!

9/14/2010

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Turner describing how the Greenland paddle does its magical work! Photo courtesy of The Complete Paddler.
Here Heather eloquently describes the first night and morning of our trip to the first annual Ontario Greenland Camp, in Bracebridge, ON. Enjoy! -Nena

“It’s the Canadian Shield”, Alan explained, when I asked him to tell me about the beautiful rock formations that we began seeing about 30 or so miles south of Stoneleigh Lake (just north and east of Bracebridge, ON), where Nena & I were heading for the weekend of Sept 11-12th. The Shield is exposed bedrock extending over 3 million square miles in central and northeast Canada, the Adirondack mountains, and then across the water to Greenland. This common ground brought together paddlers from Canada, the US and Greenland last weekend for the first annual Ontario Greenland Camp. James Roberts and Dympna Hayes, co-owners of LearntoKayak.ca (Toronto, ON) hosted the event with support from Kelly McDowell, owner of the shop, The Complete Paddler (Etobicoke, ON). I admit to feeling rather star-struck as we arrived at camp and I met our instructors for the weekend – a Who’s-Who list of Greenland paddling champions – Adam Hansen, Heather Lamon, Cheri Perry, and Turner Wilson!


Read on...

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Ontario Greenland Kayak Camp (Nena's Story)

9/14/2010

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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!
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Rough Riders - Forward Stroke Clinic

8/2/2010

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After a long drive from NH with an overnight pit stop in Ithaca, I made it to Rochester in time for Thursday night Rough Riders. Due to Big Purple's poor fuel economy when suspended in the air (the fuel economy on the water is infinite!), I was without my boat this weekend. This forced me to continue boat shopping by trying 3 new boats. For this paddle, Heather kindly lent me her beautiful low volume Romany. The deck is a lot lower on this boat than on my Valley Avocet, which made my legs fall asleep. My knees need their space! The Romany also has a much flatter hull (bottom) than my boat.

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    Welcome!

    This is a blog about exploring the outdoors (mostly by kayak), traveling, trip planning, and coastal engineering. It currently focuses on kayaking in the Netherlands and Belgium, but previous posts cover Upstate New York, California, and much more. See the Complete List of Blog Posts for a history of the site. Looking for something specific? Search the site here.

    In addition to the blog, check out the Water Nerd section, where I write about coastal engineering and hydrology. 

    ​Happy Paddling!
    ​Nena

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