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Kayaking the Canadian Sauna Islands on Lake Superior
Last week I did a kayaking trip from Grand Portage to Squaw Bay. I was paddling with Dave and Amy Freeman of Wilderness Classroom (Facebook page), their new intern Dan Modahl and John Amren who used to own Superior Coastal Sports in Grand Marais. Dave and Amy just started out on the last leg of their 13,000-mile trip across North America via kayak, canoe and dog sled. They’ll complete the trip next April in the Florida keys. They started the trip in 2010 by kayaking the Inside Passage. John sold his store a couple of years ago, which freed him up to finally do the Lake Superior kayak circumnavigation that he…
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Kayaking to the Sea: Sault Ste. Marie to Quebec City
Last weekend, Tim Gallaway, a PaddlingLight contributor, left on a 850 to 900 mile long trip from Sault Ste. Marie to Quebec City via kayak. I asked him to share a little information about his trip to PaddlingLight’s readers. The goods are below, but first this is how you can follow Tim’s journey: Soo to the Sea Facebook page Tim Gallaway’s Twitter Kayaking to the Sea Webpage Kayaking to the Sea I’ve had to repeat this bit so many times it has more or less become a script. It’s quite interesting really. I’ve come to recognize what questions are about to be asked and if the person asking me the…
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What’s Our Burden as More Experienced Kayakers?
I had an interesting experience yesterday afternoon. I went out paddling on Lake Superior in 1- to 3-foot waves, sub-40 degree Fahrenheit water temps and air temps in the 50s. There’s a really rocky and nasty surf break near town, so I paddled there to ride the outside of the break, then I made my way back to the parking lot landing in dumping waves on the beach here and there just for fun. A rec boater apparently saw me paddling and thought it looked fun. Just as I was about to go to the car, I noticed her without a lifevest and no wet/drysuit trying to get out through dumping waves.…
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Kayaking in the Apostle Island Sea Caves
In April of this year, we joined the Gear Junkie on a short trip to the Apostle Islands for their new Off the Map video series. We spent the day exploring the mainland sandstone sea caves and filming the trip. I hadn’t seen the video until today. It’s pretty sweet. Here’s the video: It makes the sea caves seem pretty fast paced, and I love the footage of me doing a roll. All in all it was a great way to get off the north shore and spend time with friends. Check out my original Apostle Island trip report.
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Summer and Instruction Speaking Schedule
This spring and summer I’ve been invited to speak and teach at a number of events. The first event happens this upcoming weekend in Minneapolis at Midwest Mountaineering. I’m presenting two different slide shows and am sharing a booth with the Wilderness Classroom Organization, a non-profit that you should help support. If you’re in the Twin Cities this weekend come see me speak at these presentations: Outdoor Adventure Expo (Twin Cities) Canoe & Kayak Expedition Photography Fri, April 27, 7:30pm Hanson Hall, Room 104 Elevator pitch: Whether on a long distance paddling expedition or a shorter trip to a nearby area such as the BWCA, chances are that you’re going to…
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How to Choose a Dry Suit for Kayaking
How do you choose a drysuit for kayaking on cold water? When do you use it? What brand – always Kokatat? How do you get one to fit right? Do you get used to the feeling of claustrophobia with the tight gasket around the neck? How do you care for it? How long can you expect the gaskets to last? These were all questions posed on Paddlinglight’s Facebook page when I recently asked for article ideas. These are all great questions to get answers for when you’re preparing to buy what might be the most expensive piece of kayaking gear that you buy after your kayak. What are my options…
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Wetsuit vs. Drysuit for Kayaking
When it’s cold out and the water temperature starts dropping, dressing for immersion might mean the difference between surviving a swim and succumbing to cold shock, cold incapacitation and eventually hypothermia. At a base level, paddlers should dress to survive a swim of any length and still function in the canoe or kayak afterward. This means dressing in a wetsuit or drysuit when the water gets cold. The ultimate question: what’s the difference between a wetsuit vs. drysuit for kayaking? Defining Cold Water Paddling There’s no commonly accepted threshold at which water changes to cold water, so various organizations use different guidelines. Some of the commonly used guidelines are those…
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U.S. Coast Guard Required Signalling Devices for Kayakers
When kayaking on the Great Lakes, U.S. Coastal Waters or territorial seas, the U.S. Coast Guard requires kayakers (or other paddlers) to carry signalling devices. An other article, Signaling Devices to Carry When Kayaking or Canoeing, covers the most common signalling devices that you should carry, but if you want to get by legally, you must carry these. Don’t be caught without them. Don’t want to read the article and just want to know what you have to buy to be legal? Scroll down to the summary below. It has bullet points. Visual Distress Signals The U.S. Coast Guard requires kayakers to carry three visual distress signals for night. For…
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The Ikkatsu Project: Documenting the Tsunami Debris
People are attracted to sea-kayaking for many different reasons. Relaxation, adventure or the occasional adrenaline rush are all valid reasons. Over the years I’ve found my reasons morphing and growing. Of late, I’ve been moving away from kayaking for kayaking sake, to using kayaking as a means to an end. When I found the organization Adventurers and Scientist for Conservation I realized that I wanted to get involve with a program where my desire for outdoor adventure was couple with a bigger cause. Then just as I was sending in my application to A&S, I was approached by Ken Campbell, a fellow guide-instructor with a project that grabbed my attention…
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Apostle Island Sea Kayaking Trip Report
Yesterday, I went over to the Apostle Islands with Stephen Regenold and TC Worley of Gear Junkie. They were filming a travel piece and needed some kayakers to help out, so I recruited my friend John Amren, and we all trekked over to the islands. For those that don’t know, the Apostle Islands are often called the premier sea kayaking destination on Lake Superior. The National Park Service, which manages the islands, calls them the “Jewels of Lake Superior.” They are about two hours east of Duluth, Minnesota, four hours from the Twin Cities and about 30 minutes north of Ashland, Wisconsin. A peninsula juts out into Lake Superior and the 21 islands that…
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Guerrilla Camping for Canoeists and Kayakers
I awoke with a start, not due to loud rumbling, but due to the ground shaking under my sleeping bag. It was 3:30am and a heavily laden freight train was headed north on tracks located just across the river, less than 30 yards from my tent. We were guerrilla camping along the Tioughnioga River in upstate New York paralleled by a little used railroad line. It was the only train we heard or saw during our trip down river, but its timing was exquisite. After the train passed I snoozed a little and then got up to the sounds of wild turkeys coming off their roosts on the nearby hillside. …
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Signaling Devices to Carry While Canoeing and Kayaking
Maintaining communications within and outside of your group when kayaking or canoeing, whether it’s a day trip or a longer one, adds a degree of safety to your trip. There are multiple types of signaling devices on the market, and many can be used for both communications to your paddling partners and any outside entities, such as other boaters or shore-based stations. The following can be considered the minimal recommended devices for a trip of any length. Why Carry Devices? If you’ve heard the safety acronym “CLAP” before, you know that the first two letters stand for communication and line-of-sight. The reason that these are important is that if you can’t communicate with…
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When They Want to Take Away Wilderness
On PaddlingLight, I try to steer clear of politics, but one of PaddlingLight’s missions is to increase wilderness protection so I have to stick my toes into it now and then. Recently, we had some alarming numbers on wilderness participation rates, and with an increasingly anti-environmental U.S. congress, which according to some numbers is the most anti-environmental congress in the existence of the United States — as of September 2011 they made 125 votes against the environment and 33 votes to undermine protection for public lands and coasts — I feel like it’s my duty as a paddler, a blogger and a lover of wilderness to speak out. Especially now with…
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Stealth Camping: the Path of the Ninja Paddler
Many of the areas that I’ve paddled have built up shoreline with houses coming almost to the water and parks, if they exist at all, more than a day’s paddle away, or parks that don’t allow camping. During a multi-day kayaking or canoeing trip, if you want to camp in these areas, you’ll camp on private property at some point — known as stealth camping. In a few countries, such as Norway, you have the right to access, which means that you can camp freely on wildlands and other private lands. In Norway, as long as the land is uncultivated, you can pretty much camp there (see the Outdoor Recreation…
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Canoeists Getting Older and Introducing Fewer New People to the Wilderness
Lots of news in the paddling world today, but the scariest is a report just released by the U.S. Forest Service about the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area: In it, we found out that the average user age in 1969 was 26 and in 2007 it was 45. We also found out that first time visitors have dropped from 30% of visitors to 6%. This means that fewer people are being introduced to the BWCA. I’d guess that also means that the age of the average visitor will continue to rise and current users grow older. As a point of reference, the average age in Minnesota is 36. The study…
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