Tuesday afternoon we left the cities for a week of paddling about the Apostle Islands, we hit Little Sand Bay by 8pm, that gave us an hour to load the boats, park the cars, paddle a 4 mile crossing to York Island for a 9pm sunset .... so without incident we managed to make the island a little past dark .. well .. 10 pm to be exact. Weather was nice, and a calm lake made the crossing enjoyable. Wednesday am we had some nice surfing waves en route to Cat Island, but for the most part, the whole week gave us calm water and light winds. Did I mention the flies ?!? There must have been a recent hatch, because Cat Island had plenty of them ... Dave O had the foresight to bring along a screen tent, which we soon came to call the "Bat Cave".
This well thought out tent was a saving grace for the times when the flies became hungry, and started adding us to the food chain! This was the first time I had been to Cat, Outer, and Stockton Islands. It was worth the wait, Cat and Outer Islands are quite a ways out from the mainland ... when you are sitting in a kayak paddling about 4 mph, and you see a thin line of trees on the horizon, you know to be your destination .. it can be a bit humbling. The last day was spent on Manitou Island, much closer to the landing than Outer, with a small black bear close by to give us some excitement, and a friendly sail boater ... made another nice day on the islands. I think we put on 60 miles or so over the week ... just enough to not forget the ibuprofen.
6 comments:
Sounds great Ron. One of these days I'll have to join you for an Apostle Island weekend!
Oh, and I'm considering doing a Saturday extended Rolling Clinic. Do you have any recommendations as to a good lake/beach I can utilize?
Hey Alex, Wish you would join us on an Apostle trip ... is alway a good time! Bush Lake in Bloomington is a nice lake to work on rolls, the water is always clean. Sandy beaches are on a couple of shores. Waconia is a nice lake too, very sandy beach .. good for standing next to a boat and working with someone, but is a bit of a drive. What time?? I'll be there at any lake you decide.
Thanks Ron. I'll let you know as soon as I nail down a time. Although I was just at Bush Lake with Ron S. last week, I didn't really look around. Are there restrooms nearby? Standing in waist deep water tends to make me have to use the restrooms a fair bit!
I'm not aware of a restroom at Bush Lake .. Waconia has a "portable" unit at the boat launch. Those are sometimes not very nice. Lake Independence would be ok, but Saturday would be a busy place ... lots of swimmers, and kids on the beach. Medicine Lake is starting to get weedy .. not fun to stand in weeds and muck. Long Lake, or Snail, both have restrooms, and also have usable beaches. I'd avoid Twin Lake near Robbinsdale ... no beach.
I'm actually thinking about Cedar Lake right now. It's really clean, we won't be competing with motor boats at the launch area, and there's decent portable restrooms. I think if we held a session early enough on Saturday (perhaps 9-11:30 or so), we can avoid the majority of the beach crowd. Granted parking for those who show up late might get iffy. I'll take a bike ride around Cedar tonight and scout out the three beaches and parking to see which one would work the best.
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