Night Skiing

With the last snowfall, and now with another storm on the way, we have enough snow for some skiing for the First time all season. With lighting on the trails until 10pm it makes a nice evening. This snow is great news for the northern portions of the state, especially around Duluth, where they are expecting up to 2 ft of snow today, and tomorrow. The lake levels all around the state are very low. Superior is at its lowest in 75 yrs, along with much of the boundary waters. This will really help the white water boaters for sure!

Snow Day

Had some odd looks from people while driving to the pool with the kayak on the roof of the plow truck. Lots of snow today! I did manage to take a 2 hour paddling break, a guy has to have priorities.

Plans for 2007

I had a great summer last year, spent 21 nights in a tent while on the shores of Lake Superior, along with a few nights on a Boundary Waters canoe trip. Some of my favorites were on Isle Royale. We spent an extra day at Belle Isle campsite for a wind day, this was probably the nicest. Merritt Lane I remember mostly because we had just paddled around Locke Point in 3 to 5 ft waves, past the Palisades, then around Blake Point in similar conditions. Then into the placid waters protecting Merritt Lane. All night we could hear the waves crashing on Blake Point.

2007 is starting to take shape. Already some plans are in the works for a couple of Apostle Island trips, also some kayak fishing along the South Shore. I'll be taking the ACA Instructor training this spring, Canoecopia is coming up in a couple of weeks, then the Sunday night rolling clinic with Freya, and Greg Stamer. So lots of good things to look forward to this year ... to bad it's still February!

Both pictures taken by Aras.

Rough day on the lake

Todays Lake Superior forecast:

.TODAY...SW WIND 5 TO 15 KT. LIGHT SNOW LIKELY IN THE MORNING.SNOW SHOWERS POSSIBLY MIXED WITH RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. ATHUNDERSTORM IS ALSO POSSIBLE. WAVES CALM TO 2 FT..TONIGHT...SW WIND 5 TO 15 KT BECOMING N 15 TO 25 KT BY LATEEVENING...THEN INCREASING TO N GALES TO 35 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SNOWSHOWERS WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS EARLY IN THEEVENING...THEN SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY. HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY AFTERMIDNIGHT. WAVES BUILDING TO 10 TO 14 FT..THU...N WIND TO 30 KT DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 20 KT. HEAVY FREEZINGSPRAY. SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY EARLY IN THE MORNING...THEN A CHANCE OFSNOW SHOWERS. WAVES BUILDING TO 11 TO 15 FT THEN SUBSIDING TO 8 TO11 FT.

Maybe the winds and waves will break up some of the shore ice. One of the local news helicopters is stationed here at our shop, he is headed up today to Duluth to do a story on the lake. The big deal is the low water, down 18 inches from normal, I read that is roughly 9 cubic miles of water! Along with virtually no snow in the upstate areas there will be very little runoff in the spring.

This is a story they did recently on the water level.

http://www.kare11.com/news/investigative/extras/extras_article.aspx?storyid=148235

Pool Time!

Well I did get the Butterfly working a little better .. at least when I ended up back in the water I knew what I did wrong. The hardest part is just the last instant with the transition from the lay back to sitting up. Anyway, it is coming along just fine. No complaints.

Also Alex was up to his usual .. doing what he enjoys .. helping people get their roll going, ya gotta like that guy!

Same Thing only Different

As you look inside an aircraft engine, it does give you a sense of reassurance when you see how massive everything is built. Its overbuilt. It has two completely separate ignition systems, so if one would fail, the other system would keep the engine running. It doesn't rely on any sort of electrical system at all .. it doesn't need one because the ignition is supplied by magnetos. As long as I do my part when I assemble everything, this engine should run safely for 2000+ hours. Tomorrow morning after I check everything one more time, I'll assemble the case halves, and put it all together. Then I'll attach this engine, and another just like it on the other wing. When its all completed, I'll get to stand on the side of the runway while the plane leaves the ground and fly's off to places all over the country. I used to do all my first flights, but I've let my license lapse in recent years. Its always a tense time watching .. reassuring your self you didn't forget anything.

Learning skills in a kayak has been just like learning to fly, no short cuts .. butt in the boat vrs. time in the air .. same thing. Learning aerobatics ... aileron roll vrs. sweep roll .. same thing, learning something upside down, and counter intuitive. Navigation without a GPS is watching the shorline and looking for landmarks, even the charts are similar in so many ways. Lots of information is there, you just need to know how to use it. I bought a 1947 Luscombe in Colorado, and had to fly it back home to Minnesota .. all with just a chart on my lap, and a compass. Even the weather is such a dominating force to be reconded with, I used to stop at old grass strips in small towns, set up a tent under the wing and spend the night. Sure enough you'd wake up to fog, or howling winds.

The change over from flying to paddling has been a fun and challanging experience, all of the things I loved about flying, are here in paddling .. they were here all along.

Stove Test

I started doing an informal test on a new stove, the Trangia 28T is a backpacker model with just a burner, and windscreen/holder. It comes with a small pot, pot gripper, and a lid they pass as a non-stick frying pan. I don't think I could fry two eggs in it successfully. But that's not really what I was looking for, I have plenty of cookware. The stove is what interested me. It burns alcohol, a relatively cheap and easily accessible fuel. No moving parts. I've repaired my MSR Whisperlite a number of times, taking it apart in the field is really not a great idea unless you have a nice table, and some good lighting. Sitting on a log wearing a headlamp doesn't cut it, and if you loose the little shaker thing, well. So the simplicity is a big plus for me. Boiling water seems to be the test all the stove makers rave about, this one will not win any races. But it will boil water just fine. I filled up an MSR teapot with a litre of very cold water, set it on the tailgate of the pickup. There was about a 10 knot wind so I set up a wind break, temp was 10F. I had a rolling boil in about 12 minutes. What I discovered while I heated up a pot of chunky vegetable soup was it didn't burn the soup in a two inch circle in the bottom of the pot like a typical backpacker stove will do. The stove also came with a small lid to place on the stove to adjust the flame. This little device looks troublesome, once it is placed on the stove, I don't know how anyone could readjust the flame without some burned fingers. I discovered the best use for it was to close the adjuster all the way and use it to snuff the fire out. So, not much practical adjustment for the heat. With everything there are always trade offs, the stove has very good points .. Very simple to operate, no moving parts, seems to have just the right amount of heat for most cooking applications, very quiet, small and light weight, environmentally friendly fuel. The trade offs would be commonality of fuel in a group, most everyone uses white gas. I don't think the lower heat output would do well cooking for a large group. I think its really meant for one or two people. And although I didn't measure fuel usage, it may require more fuel to get the job done, just by the slightly longer cooking times. All things considered I will use this stove for the coming paddling season. I was keeping an MSR Pocket Rocket along for a spare. Maybe I can leave it at home next season.

Andrew McAuley

Some hard to take news is coming out New Zealand last night, and through the morning. Andrew McAuley's kayak was found overturned 40 miles out from the coast, with no sign of Andrew. Derrick Mayoleth has been keeping us up to date on his blog http://www.kayakwisconsin.net/blog.html my thanks to him for his efforts to keep us all informed. There always seems to be a dark side to the dreams we have. We try and keep that dark side away by planning for things that may go wrong. I hope somehow Andrew is still alive and well, waiting to be picked up. He has floatation, and proper gear for survival.

My prayers go out to him and his family.

New Stove

After 30 years with tempermental white gas stoves, I have taken the plunge, and purchased a Trangia 28T. The backpacker model is under $30. I had first heard of these little gems from Bill Newman, one of my first kayak instructors, he preached the merits of "no moving parts", "safety", and "environmentaly friendly", he also had quite a story of saving his parents from a flaming inferno caused by a troublesome stove. I also had been reading Sam Crowleys preparations for his circumnavigation of Ireland this coming year, and he seems very fond of his Trangia. And not to have to listen to the likes of a F-18 Hornet at 7 in the am sounded pretty good to me. I'll give this little stove a workout over the weekend and see how it does. If it fairs well, I may purchase the 27 size.

Human Spirit

I've been watching Andrew Mcauley http://www.andrewmcauley.com/ on his paddle accross the Tasman Sea in a kayak. Its hard to imagine what it must like. I have dreams to go on adventures around Lake Superior, the Pacific Coast, and the like ... but something like this goes way beyond that. Its people like Andrew Mcauley that show us what the human spirit is really about. He is almost to New Zealand right now, battling strong currents that are keeping his progress slow, but he is on course, and should be there soon.

Pool Sessions

Thats Tony doing a static brace .. lots of skilled paddlers at the pool today. The winter season here seems to last forever, Sunday was still -12 F at noon. This morning -20 F in the outlying areas of the Twin Cities. It makes the pool sessions a real nice alternative to just about anything a person would be doing this time of year.
I spent most of the 2 hrs working on the Butterfly Roll, and since I am still not very proficient at it .. the 2 hrs also was spent reinforcing my standard roll .. so it was still a good learning day. Alex spent a good deal of time helping me with the roll. He pointed out some things I didn't realize I was doing, he is able to see right away what is going on with the roll. So thanks Alex! As soon as he was done helping me, he was off helping another ... I hope he had some time to work on his own stuff!