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Aquabound Manta Ray Carbon Paddle Review
For a little over a month, I’ve been using Aquabound’s Manta Ray Carbon paddle as my primary paddle for personal trips and for guiding. Aquabound sent me the paddle so I could do a Manta Ray Carbon paddle review. I’ve used the paddle with a number of different boats, including a NDK Explorer, Wilderness Systems Tempest 170 Pro and a Dagger Alchemy. The conditions that I tested it in ranged from calm to 4-foot choppy wind waves. I also used it for surfing in waves up to 3 feet and for playing in rock gardens in waves to 3 feet. I tested the 210 cm version. Aquabound describes the Manta…
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Kayaks For Sale
I have one new and a few used kayaks for sale. The kayaks are in Grand Marais, Minnesota, but if we can coordinate it correctly, I can meet someone in Duluth, Minnesota, because I often get down there. SOLD — 2012 Perception Expression 15 Red w/skeg. Mid-level touring kayak with some features of an expeditions kayak. Turns easily and the skeg keeps it going straight when you want it to go straight. Lots of room for hauling gear. 2011 UK Canoe & Kayak Magazine Best Touring Kayak! Length: 15’0 / 456 cm Width: 24″ / 61 cm Max Capacity: 325 lbs / 148 kg Deck Height: 14.5″ / 37 cm…
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River of Doubt Centennial Canoe Expedition Completed
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…
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Kayak Deck Slates for Navigation
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…
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Rhythm of the Hayes: Paddling Expedition to Hudson Bay
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.…
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Namby Pamby, the Kayaker and Minnehaha Falls
Minnesota is in flood. We’re getting lots of rain on top of lots of rain, which means that many of the streams and rivers are at some of their highest levels ever. If you’re a whitewater kayaker, your ears probably just perked up a little, because you know that the legendary whitewater rivers of Lake Superior’s north shore run the best during the spring runoff when the water is cold. It’s June and the water is somewhat warm, which means warm whitewater on the north shore. But that’s not all, 53-foot Minnehaha Falls on the Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis hit an all time record high yesterday. Apparently, there was a huge…
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Review: The Battle of NRS Cockpit Covers
A kayak cockpit cover keeps the gunk out of your cockpit when travel down the road and helps save gas money — I lose about 1 mpg when traveling without cockpit covers. It can also keep gear inside of your boat. For example, I strap by paddle float and pump into the cockpit, but a cockpit cover can ensure that they stay in the cockpit and that the wind doesn’t rip them out. When you’re storing your kayak (especially if you store it outside), a cockpit cover will keep debris and mice from getting into the boat — if you leave something for mice to eat in your under deck…
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Kelty TrailLogic TN2 Tent Review
I really wanted a Sierra Designs Lightning tent and had ordered one last fall only to find out that they were out of stock, so I decided to wait until spring to buy the new version when it came out. When I saw the new SD lineup, I was pretty shocked. The Lightning was gone and something that looks like it fell off the deepend replaced it. I know that Kelty is a downline of SD, so I decided to see if the old tent somehow filtered downline into Kelty. It sort of did in the form of the Kelty TrailLogic TN2 tent. I ordered one and this is my…
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Spring Kayaking
The ice just won’t leave. It’s going. At the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Sawbill Outfitters up the Sawbill Trail from Tofte reports that the ice thickness has dropped from 27 inches to 22 inches from the 2nd of May until the 5th. At that rate, assuming a linear ice melt, the pace of ice melt puts ice out on the 18th of May. That’s when Devil Track Lake, the lake I currently sort of live on, went out last year. We broke a record. I wonder if it’ll happen again. There’s something about this time of year, especially this year with the 1 to 2 feet…
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Comfort Paddling Tuilik Deal and Win a Hoody
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…
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Jerry Vandiver’s Every Scratch Tells A Story
Back in 2012, Jerry Vandiver, a Nashville-based singer and songwriter, sent me a copy of True And Deep – Songs for the Heart of the Paddler. I was instantly hooked by the canoe country inspired songs. Jerry has followed up the first album with another one filled with tunes inspired by the canoe lifestyle and the northwoods. While the last one hit home for me, because much of it was inspired by trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) and several entry points to the BWCA are just 20 minutes from my backdoor, this one hits home even more — it has a song about the town I live…
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Northstar Canoes: Bell is Back in Black-Lite
Back in the good ole’ days when I used to work retail, we carried Bell Canoes. They were made in Minnesota and were the perfect canoes for traveling the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which was where our customers were heading. If you don’t know that Boundary Waters, you should. It’s a 1 million acre wilderness area that is only one of two wilderness areas in the U.S. designated specifically for canoes. It’s also America’s most used wilderness area. In the BWCA, you travel from lake to lake using portages that you carry your gear over. Bell Canoes were light, efficient at touring speed and nice and stable. They also…
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Wilderness in America Under Attack (Still)
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…
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Initial Big Agnes Wind Lip Review: a Sleeping Bag with Pinneco Core® Insulation
This spring (if spring ever comes to the polar vortex), I’ll be testing out Big Agnes’ Wind Lip sleeping bag on kayaking and canoe trips, but I had a chance to test it out over the last week while in the Badlands National Park. I was out there photographing the park and scouting locations for a potential photography workshop that I’d run in December (if you’re interested, email me). I used to be a geek about sleeping bags and sleeping bag insulation when I worked as a buyer/line leader for a major sporting good retailer, but since then I’m fallen out of the loop. The Big Agnes Wind Lip sleeping bag…
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Adventurer Savant
Adventurer Savant? The Savant Syndrome is when a person with mental disabilities, such as autism, shows above normal capacity in some specific area, such as music or math. We could apply this to adventurers with a little tweaking. Adventurer Savant: Someone who completes an expedition despite a serious ineptitude in both the physical and mental skills required to succeed at the sport and an inability to properly judge risk thus putting himself or herself into serious danger.
