PaddlingLight.com

Minnesota adventurers Dave Freeman and Paul Schurke, who have been in Brazil since late May canoeing the Amazon’s mythical “River of Doubt,” successfully completed their 400-mile expedition today. During this centennial year, they have retraced President Theodore Roosevelt’s epic 1914 first descent of the river that nearly cost him his life and now bears his name, the Rio Roosevelt. Despite the challenges that plagued the 1914 trek, Roosevelt commented repeatedly in his diary about the stunning beauty of the jungle. Dave and Paul were pleased to find that although some areas near the river have been cleared for pasture, most of the Rio Roosevelt remains as pristine as it was…

Last year, I had a bunch of kayak deck slate stickers made to make them for sale again. I still have a bunch left and available for purchase. Deck slates are handy for taking notes while on the water, for tracking tide information and for keeping notes for navigation. Instructors also use them for writing down names and tracking how a student does during each exercise or paddle stroke. You write on a deck slate with a grease pencil, and the slates clean up easily either by rubbing the grease off with a wet finger or with an alcohol prep pad. The stickers are easy to apply. And stick to…

From Juan Pablo Quiñonez: The expedition will focus in creating a short film with “our connection to nature” as its theme. Two ecotourism and outdoor leadership students will embark on a remote route along the Hayes River from northern Lake Winnipeg through 610 kilometres of wilderness to arrive at their destination on the shores of Hudson Bay. Their journey will follow along a historic fur trade route and one of the few major rivers in Manitoba not influenced by hydroelectric development. Jennifer Ford and Juan Pablo Quinonez are students at Mount Royal University in Calgary; Juan Pablo is an international student from Guadalajara, Mexico and Jennifer grew up in Winnipeg.…

Just wanted to send out a quick note about Comfort Paddling’s tuilik. Until April 30th, Paulo is running a Win a Hoody Contest if you fill out a questionnaire. After you fill out the questionnaire, you get 12% off the purchase of everything that you buy. That could save you over $100 on the purchase of a tricked out waterproof breathable tuilik and pants! If you’ve never used a tuilik before, I highly recommend that you give one a try. Here’s my review of Comfort Paddling’s tuilik and you should also read my article:  The Tuilik: a Perfect Bit of Kit for Winter Kayaking. Click the picture below to be taken to…

One of PaddlingLight’s missions is to increase awareness about wilderness in a way to try and increase wilderness protection. One way that PLight does this is by calling attention to attacks on America’s laws that govern Wilderness Areas and National Parks. These attacks on American wilderness hurt all Americans by making it so there is less space protected for the enjoyment of all Americans instead of just the few. I wrote about the problem of extremists before the 2012 elections and how they want to take away our wilderness. The extremist attack on U.S. National Parks and Wilderness Areas continues in the U.S. House of Representatives as they move to pass…

If you haven’t been following Sea Kayak Podcasts.com, you should. Sea Kayak Podcasts is the brainchild of Simon Willis, the man who made the excellent Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown videos, and it features short videos on a variety of subjects. The most recent include videos about repairing your kayak and interviews with kayak adventurers. Not only can you watch the videos on the website, but you can also download the videos right to your computer to watch them. I’m keeping this post short so you can head over to check out all the great videos that you’ve been missing.

Did you know that there’s a national hammock day? I didn’t either, but, whether or not this is a made up holdiay, it’s one that I’d like to celebrate. You can easily celebrate it by kicking back on July 22nd in a hammock. If the bugs in northern Minnesota aren’t too bad that day, I’m going to. To help you celebrate Grand Trunk Goods is giving away $3000 in prizes — that’s a lot of hammocks. To win you need to upload a photo of your Grand Trunk gear or a photo of where you want to go with your Grand Trunk gear and then you get your friends to…