Apostle Islands Kayaking

A few weeks ago, I did my first kayaking trip where I was carrying camping gear in my own boat. This was pretty exciting to me, since it was the whole reason I originally chose the QCC 500X. I learned that kayaking is a lot different than backpacking - you don't care about weight, but do care (somewhat) about volume. So, if I am going to be doing more kayak camping (and yes, I will be), I need to re-think how I am approaching this.

The following picture shows Ron walking along the beach, searching for white stones. The fog has come in, and blends in with the water as if Ron were at the edge of the world:


As the fog cleared the next morning, there was a sailboat in the harbor near our campsite:

First Sailing Trip This Year

Pam and I were able to get up to Duluth the weekend after Memorial Day to spend some time on our sailboat (Wildheart). The picture below shows a freighter coming into the channel under the lift bridge - always an impressive sight:

Copper Harbor Kayaking Trip

During the Memorial Day weekend, I drove up to Copper Harbor, Michigan, for a kayaking trip with SKOAC.

On Saturday, Jill and I decided to take a shortcut from Copper Harbor down to Lac Labelle. Going via paved road, the total distance was about 20 miles. There was a dirt road that looked like it might eliminate as much as 3-4 miles of this daunting distance. We started down the dirt road, which quickly turned into a snowmobile trail, then into what looked to be a cross country ski trail. If we would have had the proper maps, this would have been easy. After about 3 hours, we finally arrived at the lake. The paddling was great - challenging conditions including large waves, windy conditions and fantastic scenery. The picture below is from our turn-around point near Bette Gris. My boat (QCC 500) is in the background.


Returning, we found Dave wondering what had happened to us. The next day we paddled from Agate Harbor to Copper Harbor, which is about 12 miles. A few miles from Copper Harbor, Jill announced that "someone who can read the weather from looking at clouds should turn around and look behind us". I turned around, then proceeded to tell her that blackness in the middle of the day was a bad thing, and that we had 20-30 minutes before the storm was on top of us. We paddled quickly to Copper Harbor and avoided any mishaps.

The hotel we stayed at (Bella Vista) was right on the water, which allowed us to launch for a nice sunset paddle. The picture below shows our boats the next morning:




The next morning we did a quick paddle from Eagle Harbor, but got clobbered by winds and waves. Here is a picture of me with as we duck into a harbor: