Post Trip Blues

News: my latest childrens' story, Nautical Mystery Quest, is being published in Storyteller Tymes Magazine, August 15, 2009.

Really cool news: Dogs in Canada asked me to send in another article!


Problem: after you've paddled around the largest freshwater Island in the World, what do you do next?

We're currently scanning the World map if anyone has suggestions.

Denis watching sunrise - Barrie Island, North Channel

In writing news, upon my return I had 7 rejections, 3 acceptances and one expression of interest in my book Dogsled Dreams. Of course my mind had me already on the plane for my book signing tour. That is why it is so much more crushing to get the "sorry, your book is awesome but not awesome enough..." email. Apparently it made it to an editorial meeting of the small press I had submitted it to.

Dust off, submit elsewhere, look ahead far into the future to your next vacation and begin to plan the next ultimate kayaking trip.

http://greenontherock.blogspot.com/

Oh yes, and if you would like to REALLY learn how to roll a kayak the correct way that actually works and is way more fun than any other method, check out Heather's instructions.

Trip food

The most asked question I've been getting about our recent kayak trip was about what food we ate. Here's a breakdown of a typical day on our journey.

Calories burned: 4,000

Breakfast: Carnation Instant Breakfast envelope with powdered milk (Denis has 2)
granola
dried apricots
prunes

Snacks: chunks of cheese
oranges, apples
GORP
granola bars
homemade bear jerky

Lunch: Bagel (Denis has 2)
avacado
PB, honey
dried fruit
Oreos

Dinner: Deer meat chilli
chicken soup
crackers
Sweedish Berries candy

Water: 2 litres per day

Weight loss: Denis - 5 pounds
Terry - 0

Kayak Manitoulin Island a success

In between naps and replenishing my fat reserves, I thought I'd take a moment to quickly say we MADE IT around Manitoulin. A few stats:

Distance: 315 km

Time: 8 days and 1 hour

Average Distance covered per day: 35 km

Greatest distance covered in one day: 58 km

Time on the water: Generally 5am - 2pm but some days went till 5pm

Highlights:

3 hour crossing by compass in complete fog

Following 6 foot seas off Greene Island - losing sight of each other in the troughs

Raccoon stealing food from the cockpit at night - made off with apples and a bag of nuts

6 Degree Celcius morning temps. 8 Degree Celcius water temps. (ensured no tipping)

Learned to pee from a kayak into a peanut butter container

The entire coastline of Wikwemikong - mini flower pots, cliffs, clear aqua waters

An intimate encounter with Giant Hogweed resulting in itchy burning horrendous rash.

As always, click on any image to enlarge.

Will write a little more when the keyboard stops rocking - still have a wicked case of sea legs.

Departing for Expedition

This is what 165 pounds of gear looks like. It was a little tight in the yaks so a few things had to go. This is the weened pile. I had to resort to an old Quetico trick and purchased a pair of underwear that Tilley Hat makers sell - quick dry. I'll wash them every night and hopefully they'll be ready to go in the morning. That got rid of 14 pairs of underwear.

The marine forecast is calling for a week of gale West winds. Just in time for us heading West. Hopefully the unappreciated joke of the winds switching East as we round the Island will not happen. We're about to set out tonight to try and get a head start on the wind monster due to make an appearance sometime after midnight. At this rate, it may take until September to make it back. But two weeks is all we have. Success or failure, depends on the wind. I'm looking out the window at the trees bent over, leaves flapping and imagining what the North Channel looks like. I'm imagining my head bent forward, eyes squinted, hair blowing out behind me as I struggle to not lose the paddle. I'm imagining this being fun.

Triathalon

Competed in a triathalon on Sunday as part of an all female team. We had a runner - who came in third, beating out lots of athletic-looking men. Myself and my swimming friend, Jackie, paddled the 6 km canoe sprint - passing one canoe but just could not catch the (much younger) girls in front of us with the invisible motor. And our biker held her own coming back with white eyeballs in a sea of mud. We came in third. Considering it was pouring rain, there were lots of teams, the atmosphere was filled with laughter and screaming kids, and I had a blast. The mouth-watering aroma coming from the sausage stand attracted most everyone to gather in one area after the race. Great commraderie.

It was an interesting role-swap for my friend and I. We train together for swim meets and she is a far superior swimmer than me. But for this day, I was the expert paddler yelling advice, suggestions and orders from the stern. Looking at our time, I think it worked. But swimming season isn't far off so the order of the Universe will soon right itself.

Triathalon Results

http://www.mindemoyaclassic.com/module-resultsadmin.html?module=resultsadmin