Spanish River/North Channel Kayak Trip

Highlights of the trip:

Someone forgot the water filter. Possible giardia may result. Will know in a week or so.

Editor's note: It wasn't Terry that forgot it.

Compared to our last expedition when we circumnavigated Manitoulin Island and froze our butts off, we were warm - in fact, a little over-toasted, for this trip.

The Spanish River was rotten with Bald Eagles. Saw five in one day.

Despite 20 years of wilderness camping and burying it without incident, Terry may have accidentally stepped in her own... with her brand new awesome kayak shoes. Which, upon further inspection, apparently have soles with lots of crevices. Don't judge.

Click on photos to enlarge. You'll be able to see the Cormorants closely!

Now on to some sad news. My inbox was indeed full, but not in a good way. The book publisher that had mailed me a contract for my middle grade novel, Dogsled Dreams, has been diagnosed with something. She is shutting down her website and cancelling all current projects, including mine. Wouldn't a writer's life be boring without the emotional ride of trying to get published?

Next kayak expedition

And we're off again paddling headlong down the Spanish River out to the North Channel and on to Bay of Islands. Can't wait to slide into my kayak again. I'll update next week with tales of windless, glistening water, sun-kissed paddling muscles and a menagerie of wildlife sightings. Er... that's what I've ordered anyway.

Oh yes, and when I get back, my inbox will floweth over with book contract offers. Actually, I'm waiting on some major developments. More later - must paddle now and clear the mind.

campin' and fishin'

Back from our family camping weekend. Our annual Labour Day weekend excursion all the way over to the next lake. Actually it was a good thing it's not far since yours truly had to paddle back home all by herself to get the tent poles that someone forgot to pack.

I'm also still in shock that Denis didn't bring his usual four-pound first-aid kit. It's always with us, except for this time when Denis slices his finger to the bone on a dried fern. Sounds sort of benign, but it was a bloody gushing event with no band-aids. Denis spent the weekend with his hankie tied around his finger. He also broke his rod, and watched his prized new lure sail off on it's own after an enthusiastic cast. He also woke up in the tent covered in no-see-um bites - with the rest of us completely bite free. Sort of reminded me of the Polysporin commercial when Dad gets his a** kicked while camping.

It was Remmington's debut camping trip (the girl's little dog) and it took him a while to sort out what the frig was going on. While we paddled through the narrows, he decided to make a flying mad leap out of the canoe. He landed in the mud and quickly realized we weren't following. His eyeballs bugged out at me while he swam towards us, "pick me up, pick me up, pick me up!"

The weather was the nicest of the whole summer and we had a great time catching bass, roasting marshmallows (while trying to remember all those campfire songs when the girls were younger), and playing canasta in the tent. As Rebecca would say - good times, good times.

hiking adventures

FlickrCC

Thankfully, this is not my dog.

My dog, Tanzer and I, go for a hike around the lake nearly every morning. This morning I crested a hill to see Tanzer staring at an enormous porky in the middle of the trail. I yelled and the porcupine turned and waddled down the trail with my dog walking slowly behind him. I called Tanzer back and we waited for him to leave, since you really can't rush a porky. We continued over the next crest and he was still strolling along the trail. My very smart dog just walked behind him until he finally decided to climb a tree. Good dog...yes, you're such a gooood dog!

Dogs in Canada

Dogs in Canada Magazine is quickly becoming my favorite. I've just found out another of my articles, Summer Sled Dogs, has been accepted by them. Ya! They're also doing a contributor feature on me in November. Each month they do a feature with bio and picture of their writers such as a veterinarian, an award winning photographer or some other specialist. I just hope that my little paragraph won't look too much like Sesame Street's "One of these things doesn't belong here" song.

More contest news. The folks over at http://slushbusters.blogspot.com are giving away a writers notebook. Perfect for inspiring greatness.

Little secret. sshh.

I've been playing it safe and trying to stay calm about the full manuscript request I received for my middle grade novel, Dogsled Dreams. (bet you wondered what the bookjacket thing was all about - pure self-absorbed, time-wasting fun)

But safe is boring so I am going to just quickly mention it, since that's what a writer's blog is all about. Stay tuned.

Contest

Win a 10,000 Word Edit

Over at Tara McClendon's blog http://eyefeathers.blogspot.com/ she's offering an amazing contest valued at $300. She's an editor at InspirationforWriters.com which is totally awesome.

can a leopard change its spots

Meme cheater answers

Sarah's blog, A Work in Progress, http://sarah-janelehoux.blogspot.com/

has asked for a list of ten ways I know a story was written by me. There's no way I can think of ten, but I still want to play. Here's five:

1. There is an animal in it, normally a dog.

2. Some kind of outdoor adventure happens.

3. If there are dogs, they are obviously uber smart.

4. Any dogs will have suspiciously familiar personalities - sort of like some sled dog I once knew.

5. Humour, though a relative term, is smattered throughout.

Now for my own survey. Just for fun, which book jacket do ya like?

Published stories

For those who haven't seen my website, I'll include here a few links to some magazines that have come out. Nautical Mystery Quest is the 5th story in the online magazine for kids, and Mixing it up in Killarney is the adventures of my family on a canoe trip.

http://irishstoryplayhouse.com/StoryTellerTymesSample.html

http://wavelengthmagazine.com/2009/SU09/killarney.html

Sailing into Little Current

Haweater weekend on Manitoulin Island is usually a crowd-drawing event and this year was no exception. Main street was closed to traffic and the food concession stands and trinket booths lined the sidewalks. Busters, Much Music Videos, cotton candy, jumpy balloon house, cartoon characters, Indian Tacos, woodworking, windcatchers, puppies, the works. The parade of lights at dusk with the sailboats all decked out were a crowd pleaser - especially the one with the entire Manitoulin Island on a board lit up like LiteBrite. That boat had to run the length of the channel backwards on the return cruise since the lights were only on one side of the board.

It was very cool to be able to dock right on the town docks with our sailboat and have front row seats for the spectacular fireworks display. The camera's battery ran out just before the show, however, so you will have to take my word for it - they were spectacular.




We sat back on our cushioned seats and applauded ourselves for the inspired idea to dock right in the middle of the festivities. After the the fireworks, we were able to sit back stress-free and watch the giant festering grid lock of vehicles madly fleeing the scene.


And it continued to be a fantastic idea right up until 3 am. That is when the local bar closed and the party spilled out onto the docks. Apparently our particular dock is a favorite hang out in which to declare at the top of ones voice "We've got beer!" among other things. Also we truly appreciated the update on the new day when someone with an impressive set of lungs repeated three times, "GOOD MORNING LITTLE CURRENT!" You gotta love Haweater.

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