During the summer of 2009 we paddled our kayaks out of Houghton, MI, heading west along the shores of Lake Superior and didn’t stop until we got home some 1,200 miles later. O.K. so it really wasn’t as spontaneous or unprompted as that but we did spend over 70 days on the lake battling all of the weather and waves the big lake could muster.
We departed on the trip with almost no kayak experience, having only paddled our boats a handful of miles before committing our summer to learning by trial and error. It was a steep learning curve and led to some interesting events. In addition to the stress of an expedition length trip in a discipline we were unfamiliar with, we also decided to use the trip as a good means of testing our recent engagement. It added an extra element of excitement.
If you are interested, we each kept a nightly journal chronicling the entire adventure from learning to paddle in steep seas and howling winds to learning how to compromise with each other and effectively communicate without shouting. You find the journals under the Lake Superior heading at the top of the page under the picture or you can simply click on the links below.
Hannah’s Journal and Matt’s Journal
We also took a lot of really cool photos that you can check out HERE.
Eventually we are going to get some other info up like a map of all our campsites, our gear list and some stats about the hike. But that all takes time at the computer and the more we do of that means less time out in the wilds. If there is any info you would like to see please send us an email or comment in the journals, we will see what we can do.
We hope you like the information and journals about our paddle trip. If you have questions please drop us a line. If you don’t have questions please drop us a line anyway, we love talking to people. Please feel free to leave comments in the journals, we really do like hearing from people. You can find our contact info in the “Contact Us” section of the site.