The weather around here has been amazing the past few weeks; unseasonably warm and sunny.  The 4-8 foot piles of snow in our backyard in Calumet are nearly gone and there is grass everywhere.  It seems, at least for the time being, that winter has called it quits.  All this fresh air and sunshine and comfortable outside time has really gotten me motivated and feeling good.

I ran into Greg Maino at Downwind on Monday when we were picking up some Ice Axes for our PCT hike and we decided it was time for a paddle.  He is much more motivated than me and had already been out this spring but it was my first day on the lake and I was stoked.  We made plans to meet at McLain State Park on Tuesday when we got off of work and head out.  

I put the kayak on the van and loaded up my boat when Hannah got out of school but she wasn’t feeling well and opted not to join us. She did drive me down to the lake since I am far from proficient when it comes to driving and completely incapable of driving a manual transmission vehicle. The park was still closed and the road wasn’t plowed so we had to gear up in the parking lot and carry our boats down. Once on the water it was awesome. The lake was calm, the light was good and it was so nice to be back in the boat.  We headed south around the break wall and down the cliffs toward Redridge.  There was still some ice clinging to break wall and cliffs and it was really cool to see these gigantic chunks just floating feet above the water. The waterfalls were roaring with spring runoff and I got soaked as I paddled up underneath one. We were out for about 2.5 hours and it was a really nice paddle; a perfect evening.

I should say that this another post where I just stole all of Greg’s images.  You can check out his post about our paddle and the rest of his pictures at his blog: http://www.juskuz.com/?p=970. He does a really good job and I am pretty lazy so it works out well.  It is usually tough to find pictures of Hannah and I on our trips becuase we tend not to shoot them. Greg is really good at that and posted a buch of great pictures of me on his blog.  I really appreciate how good these images are. It is also really fun paddling with him.  I know I say this everytime I do anything with Greg, but you should really check out his site. He has some amazing photos on there.  www.juskuz.com

Last weekend we were lucky enough to get to go to Madison, WI for Rutabaga’s annual paddling expo. Rutabaga is the largest paddling shop in the country and Canoecopia is the biggest expo anywhere. I didn’t really think about what this meant until we got there. 25,000 paddling enthusiasts over the course of the weekend; a huge event center packed wall to wall with boats, paddles and other gear, and tons of slide shows about skills and trips. It was a paddlers paradise.

We got to present a slide show about our Lake Superior trip on Saturday morning. Hannah has been battling illness all winter and was pretty sick when she woke up and we weren’t sure if she was even going to be able to speak during our show but as the lights dimmed she pulled it together and did an amazing job. We had only given this presentation twice before, once at Downwind Sports‘ Ladies of the Lake symposium and the other for a few friends at MTU, so we were nervous about taking it to a bigger audience. Our fears were quickly relieved and we spoke to a standing room only crowd. The slide show seemed to be well received and I hope everyone who saw it enjoyed it. If you were there please leave us a bit of feedback, we really want to get better at this. Hannah had to leave after the presentation but I stuck around and soaked up every minute of the spectacle that I could.

I started seriously looking at whitewater boats and am pretty much sold on the idea. I sat in a few and I think I am going to start saving for a Pyranha Burn.  I don’t really need another sport to take up my time but I just can’t resist the allure of steep, fast water.

We also eyed up some collapsible kayaks made by Folbot. We have been taking about making boats that could travel more easily with us for a few months but the Folbot boats put that idea to rest. They were exactly what we were looking for. The construction was impeccable, the skin looked really durable and they packed down to more than a manageable size. I was really impressed and they were definitely a standout at the show. I highly recommend checking them out if you are interested an a boat that is a little easier to haul around. I also stole all of the images for this post from their website so send some love their way if you can.

Another highlight from the weekend was the premier of the film “This Is Canoeing” by Justine Curgenven. She made the popular “This is the Sea” sea kayaking movies and I was excited to see how it translated to canoeing. The film was good but didn’t have the same excitement level that the sea kayaking films did. There were some really cool whitewater shots and the laid back vibe really fit the general tone of canoeing as a sport but it wasn’t as visually interesting as some of her other films. I also caught her presentation about her circumnavigation of the South Island of New Zealand which was really interesting. It was cool to see how a professional’s trip matched up to ours and I am happy to say that what we did was bad ass.

All in all it was an awesome weekend. The amount of boats and number of people was really overwhelming but if you like paddling I highly recommend checking it out someday.