Technique

Here is a video that has been circulating on the Internet. Some outstanding canoe handling, Canadian Style. Great technique.

A canoe is a canoe is a canoe - Unknown

We are taking ...

More than 100 cars were involved Sunday in a series of pileups that killed two people on a foggy five-mile stretch of highway just east of the city of Madison. I was on I-94 40 miles away moving at a snails pace. The fog made it very difficult to see 30 feet in front of you. How do you prepare for a situation like this? SLOW DOWN!!

Wisconsin has gone from below zero as previously posted on this blog to in the mid 40's. Bring on the tornadoes and thunder storms. Wisconsin, we are taking a hit. We wont be able to control the weather on the EC either. So we prepare...

Mother Nature has away of dishing out some payback. I always have gotten along with Mother Nature. In my younger years I had a sixth sense on where the wind would blow. Time to hone the skills.

I bring this up as Boo has always been very nervous about the weather ever since we and about 15 other kids were pinned to the shore of the Wisconsin River some years back as a huge thunderstorm rolled through. Boo was six and has never forgotten the experience.

Teri Boo's mom has an appreciation of weather and the environment as well. Teri fell through the ice some years back on Lac La Belle. Completely submerged, popped back up, hanging on to the leash of our Shepard "Baron" (gone but not forgotten) as he pulled himself and her from the water up onto the ice. They skated home to safety. Teri has never forgotten that experience either.

It is interesting, that Boo hasn't made reference to this last set of Mother Nature Spankings. I think her comfort level and understanding has grown while communing with nature and paddling over the year's. Now to work on Teri.

Have I done all that is possible around making this adventure a safe as possible? I believe so. We are taking every precaution.

Enlisted 8 time Everglades Challenge participant from Kruger Canoes Manitucruiser (Mark) to shadow us down the coast.

Using the best possible configuration the Kruger Cruiser and Balogh BOSS.

Redundant safety protocols implemented, practiced and understood. Boo has been dunked catapulted capsized and been bobbing in the water many times. She's ready. Don't get me wrong...

We heed Chief's warning posted on the WaterTribe website. We take no un-necessary risks on this adventure. If we need to hold up our forward progress for better weather and conditions, we will. It's the real deal.

Safety gear -- 2 minutes ... Risk assessment -- 5 minutes ... A mishap that takes a life -- forever. -Unknown

Dazed and confused or is it just...

Dazed and confused or is it just foggy? 90 % of our snow is gone... Bring on the mud, tornado's? Crazy weather. Lots of damage and injury just south of us. We just have a damp basement. I can live with that.

It was magical out last night in the fog at the Waterloo River Basin. Took Scout out for a run. He went walk-about for 30 minutes. I was pretty much ready just to leave him out there as he would not return on the recall whistle. He can be the best and worst of the canine species. He showed up at the jeep, without a care in the world.

I feel pretty good alternating upper and lower body workouts... The balmy weather of late gives us hope that Spring is right around corner. Chasing Scout around is making it interesting! You can get lost in the beauty of the area, so mandatory headlamp rule in effect. :-)


As seen at the consumer electronic show in Las Vegas
The new waterproof SANYO Xacti E1 captures stunning digital video and beautiful 6MP photos...on land and underwater! Waterproof digital camcorder - 6 Megapixel still photos - 5x Optical zoom - 2.5-Inch LCD display
Up to 1hr. 20min. digital video per 1GB memory card.
-

Boo and I are looking at our options for catching our Everglades Challenge Adventure on film. Well actually on SD card. CNN had a short discussion on the VPC-E1.

-

An underwater camera under $270.00. So I looked it up on Amazon. Not out yet, they are taking orders. We are thinking disposable video camera anyway, like the one we used on the MR340 last summer. Trying to stay within our budget but thought I'd share the new technology.

-

Going old school - The Capt'n

See ya Joe

An extremely good childhood friend of mine has passed away. Joe was an original.
-
From 8 years old on, a very close group of friends roamed the waters of the Lake Country Area. sailing, skiing, swimming, extreme sponge tag, the bucket game and of course "glunking" (the bombardment of quality built US automobiles with horse nuts and apples)
-
Our summers on Lac La Belle were a magical time.
-
Though we grew apart after our days on Lac La Belle sailing X and C scows and I had not talked to him in years. I miss him already.
-
See you on the other side - The Capt'n

This is what...

This is what I am talking about. Click on the image for some great pictures of some wonderful open bow wooden boats. Thank SOS for the link.

-

Check out the SOS blog to see what Alan is building in his rec room turned workshop.No stranger to boat building, SOS and friends built a Wa'apa canoe for last year's Everglades Challenge in a storage shed.

-

Beg borrow and appropriate, the lore that legends are made of.- The Capt'n

minus 4 minus 8... then what

OK... minus 4 degrees and minus 8 weeks and counting till the Everglades Challenge. Marissa is at her mom's house and I think she has just realized how close the Challenge is. Panic!!

It was kinda fun, as she was on the phone this morning when I dropped the entry and check off at the post office. There was a pause, then a "Wow, .... Dad, this is really coming up fast!"

Like clockwork (January 1st) I got a phone call from Mark at Kruger Canoes.

-

Time to get the 2008 calendar out and block out weeks for our joint Peak Camp / Kruger Kids adventures. We have the dates, but we are perplexed on what to do? The possibilities abound.

-

Some pretty outrageous ideas. Super Boo is setting the bar pretty high for the rest of the adventure kids with her bid to complete the EC 2008. I think the Hardcore Adventure Camp has turned a corner for the extreme.

-

I think a tough decision was made not to do the MR340 this year. Though there are some changes to the event where we could build a canoe and jam up to 6 people in it. hmmm? , a 34 ft long Kruger freighter? :-)

-

We had contacted Scott the event director a while back on allowing youth to participate in the MR340 under adult supervision. We thought we might turn it into a challenge camp event for our more advanced youth paddlers in PEAK Camp. But the answer was no do to insurance reasons.

-

Ideas

Dawn (SandyBottom) has a list of places she wants to paddle and has done some research around them and shared ideas...

-

John from the paddlin shop has offered on more then one occasion and has asked me to join him on one of his paddle /sail adventures...

-

Mark and the Kruger Canoe crowed from Michigan have some great 100 mile plus ideas brewing. Plus the Michigan Challenge keeps coming up in conversations.

-

Mike ( he and I and another Mike from C2C Adventures kayaked and and portaged 450 kilometers across Costa Rica in 2003) put the word out he too want to do something this summer.

-

What to do what to do what to do? - The Capt'n

Happy "Old" Year!

.... Happy Old Year!! - The Capt'n