The Gales are here!

On Thursday I will be joining several of my fellow paddlers,  heading up to the Legendary Waters Casino for the start of the third annual Gales Storm Gathering. Our casa in Washburn will be turned into a bunkhouse for a handful of attendees and we sincerely hope that the weather Gods provide us with some sort of wind and waves, if not actual gales.

We also hope that said Gods did not get their dates confused.  Last weekend was supposed to be the balmy Indian summer weather for the big Apple Festival in Bayfield, WI.  My buddy from Minocqua, SilenceOfTheLambChops, was scheduled to crash at our place after manning his photo booth along the waterfront at the Apple Festival.  At some point in the day the gusting northeast wind shredded his tent and I got a FB message that he had said to hell with it and headed for home.  The tarp was blown off my wood pile, held down by split wood on the corners, which prompted me to check the nearshore for the night.  "Gale warning in effect through 10am Sunday morning, winds from the northeast 25-30mph, gusting to 40mph, waves 10-14' subsiding to 6-8' early morning".  There was even a queasy video on Youtube of 30 seconds worth of the normally placid Madeline Island Ferry crossing with the comment, "we had to turn into that one, it was a big one". That may have been too much gale for kayaking but in the Apostles there is always a lee.  It would have been fun to sneak out somewhere but it was not in the cards.

Besides the weather the other wild card for the weekend is the government shutdown.  Say and think what you will, but the fact is that the government had never been shut down before because a group of legislators insisted that a law that had been passed by Congress, ratified by an election, and signed by the President be repealed before they pass the budget.  Which of course is their main job. I guess I learned in junior high civics that if you wanted to change a law, you helped elect legislators that would enact that change.  So the AINL, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore will be closed.  This means no visitor center in Bayfield, no launching at Meyers Beach, and supposedly we can't get within 440 yards, a quarter mile, of any of the islands other than Madeline.  This should not be a problem unless attendees have a burning desire to see the Fresnel lens in the visitor center.  There are actually only two official NPS launch sites, Meyers Beach and Little Sand Bay.  Apparently Meyers beach, which pretty much has a parking lot, pit toilet, and no staffing on site, has a chain across the entrance.  This must be to make a point (or due to the ephemeral 'liability issues' thing that people always throw out when they don't have anything better) because no staffing is needed there and other than the summer weekends there is no one representing the NPS down there anyway.  The other launch, Little Sand Bay, closes after Labor Day but they can't padlock that one because the Town of Russell operates a campground and launch right next door.  Every other launch site in the area from Bark Bay to Cornie Beach to Red Cliff to Bayfield and the Washburn coal dock are open for business.  There will be zero problems getting on the water folks.

I'm sure that a good time will be had by all no matter what the weather and state of the dysfunctional US Government is.  We missed the Gales event last year in Wawa and had our own gales event in Homer, AK where we were nearly blown off the water.  It will be quiet in the area with many establishments in Bayfield, Maggies and the Bayfield Inn being a couple of notable exceptions, shut down after Apple Fest weekend.  Washburn however will be open and one of it's newest establishments, The Snug, will be the unofficial HQ of the Washburn contingent to the Gales.  Most definitely 'good craic' as the Irish say and the sign over the urinal, "Don't piss off the fairies" is advice that should be taken to heart.  Patsy's Bar just down the block serves a burger that was voted Best on the Lake by Lake Superior Magazine.  Some great tap handles as well including Summit EPA and Keewenaw Widow Maker. Wood fired pizza at DaLous rounds out that excellent block in Washburn. As usual it will be fun seeing friends from around the Great Lakes and beyond and the coaching once again will be superb.  As my friend from Cumbria in northern England says, "No such thing as bad weather mate, only shitty gear". Bring on the weekend!

Chris Bandy - Strong kayak safety work in the Apostles

The last post in this space was about safety and how preparedness, thinking ahead, and solid risk assessment can make paddling a long, skinny boat on Gitchee Gumee a relatively safe endeavor.  My paltry efforts however, pale in comparison to a local Bayfield County guy who was honored nationally a couple weeks back for his efforts to inform and educate kayakers in the Apostle Islands on how to prepare and paddle safely in the National Lakeshore.

Chris Bandy coordinates the Coast Guard Auxiliary's "Paddle Smart" program in the AINL and has done so since 2012.  He was named the 2012 Coast Guard Auxiliairist of the year at the Coast Guards National Conference in San Diego last month.  This would be for the entire country boys and girls, which includes the Atlantic, Pacific, Bering Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The guy presenting him with the award is Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr., Commandant of the United States Coast Guard.  The complete story can be read in this link.  If you have ever talked to the friendly volunteers at Meyers Beach and Little Sand Bay and been offered one of the orange kayak emergency contact decals before launching, Chris is the guy that coordinated this effort.  He also helped execute a major kayak search and rescue exercise involving the Coast Guard, the Park Service, and at least a couple buddies of mine as the 'victims', an exercise that came off really well.  While I don't know if he was personally on the water, I spoke with two boats with Coast Guard Auxiliary personnel that were also safety boating along with the kayaks at this years Point to LaPointe Open Water Swim.  Strong work for sure and it made a difference; this year had the lowest number of Coast Guard involved paddle sport search and rescues in the past four years.

I tip my Tilley hat and salute Chris Bandy and all the other volunteers who cheerfully endure the 'don't worry, I know what I'm doing' responses from paddlers who obviously don't, given their equipment and (lack of) safety gear, as they attempt to launch into the worlds largest lake.  We can help by reinforcing the advice that these folks try to impart to rookie paddlers and thanking them with a 'nice job' and 'well done' when we encounter them at the launches.  It is pretty obvious from the empirical data on SAR events that it's working.    Lets all help them keep it going!

Photos by Auxiliarist Joseph Giannattasio

A 'Three Hour Tour' - some lessons refreshed

Actually it wasn't even three hours, it was more like 45 minutes.  A friend had just completed a

beautiful new strip baidairka for his wife and wanted a brief test paddle on Saturday morning.  His wife would christen her new boat and we would ride shotgun in my Explorer and his Squall.  We would never be more than 100 yards from shore and could only paddle about 45 minutes since I had a 'pressing' engagement at an apple press in Gurney later that morning.  Also, we weren't even on the big lake, just Chequamagon Bay north of Washburn.  The other chore of the day was to pick up the Lead Bananna, the vintage Howard Jeffs Aleut II which had been living on his trailer since a Labor Day weekend trip. I had taught on Snail Lake on Wednesday and half my stuff was in St Anthony and I left the other half at Olstone as I blew out the door, already suffering from Time Compression Syndrome, a chronic malady diagnosed by the BessemerConvivialist, which is indicated by the attempt to sfuff ten pounds of fun into a five pound bag.  Bail bag, pump, paddle float, and life jacket with all the handy gadgets were all somewhere else as we launched into a building south wind and chop, heading south to Houghton Point. 

It was a really uneventful almost boring paddle, if you can possibly consider beautiful brownstone rock formations to be boring.  When we rounded Houghton Point and got the full effect of the south wind with the waves bouncing off the cliffs on the point it got a bit more interesting.  My watch told me it was time to turn around and 66.6% of us did so successfully.  While I was watching his wife make the turn in her new baidarka, my buddy went over in the Squall when a beam sea caught him.  When I paddled over for a T rescue I noticed that the boat seemed heavy as I dragged it on to my deck to empty it.  When he jumped up on the back deck it actually sank below the water line and the cockpit filled up again.  Something was amiss and it was apparent that the back hatch was filled with water.  We would need to figure out how to dump it and I was not too excited about doing it out in the chop.  There was a dock about 75 yards away along the shore so I clipped on with my short tow and my friend swam alongside with his spouse keeping the gimlet eye on both of us.  When we got to waist deep water we pulled off the rear hatch and found that the neoprene hatch seal was missing.  To add to the water load, he had been working on a stuck footpeg, removed it, and then figured the hell with it, let's get going.  The two footpeg bolt holes had water trickling into the cockpit every time a wave passed under the boat as well.  It was obvious that the water in the cockpit had made the kayak unstable which caused the capsize in the beam seas.  At this point a well prepared paddler would pull out his bail bag which contained 6 mil poly and bungie line for hatch repair as well as super duct tape to patch the two holes.  There were no well prepared paddlers on this trip however, my bag was in the garage.  So after dumping the boat we cinched down the back hatch straps as tight as possible and I found a couple sticks of the correct diameter that I jammed into the foot peg holes and broke off and we limped back to the launch area.  I didn't even have my life jacket with knife so I could cut my water bottle to make an improvised bail bucket so we used a hat.  We made it back without incident but I was definitely chastised.

Alls well that ends well but it was still a screwup.  I don't check friends boats before we hit the water and I probably won't start now but a quick look around doesn't hurt; I may or may not have noticed the big chrome foot peg screws missing. No way on the neoprene hatch however, I would not have spotted that.  Had it been cold water or no decent place to land it would have been different and more critical but the water was warm and there was a place to land.  In the cold water scenario, given wind direction and proximity of the land, I would have probably abandoned the boat, hauled my buddy to shore, then gone back out for the kayak.  Either that or raft up with two boats to empty the hatch. I guess those elements of risk management, bluebird weather, a landing spot, and warm water, probably figured into my usual preflight unconsciously.  Not throwing in the bail bag was stupid as was none of us having a pump on deck. We improvised, dealt with it, and in the end it was a minor, no big deal situation.  But consistency is a crucial attribute in a number of activities.  Last weekend I paddled out to Oak with a group including a friend that is not in tip top condition these days.  Tow belt, energy bars, bail bag, paddle float, bilge pump, and gadget laden life jacket were all consciously along for the ride.  While we had an interesting crossing from Red Cliff Point to the Oak Spit, all went well.  As it does 98% of the time.

But the Houghton Point event was a warning, Gitchee Gumee telling me that I need to have my shit together all the time if I am within her sphere of influence, and it will be heeded.  I crashed a motorcycle when I was 18 years old and escaped no worse for wear, just like this incident.  I was a different biker after that and I will be a slightly more tuned in and consistent paddler after this situation.  In the very wise words of my buddy Silbs, paddle safe!

The Outer limits

Last week I returned from two very different kayak adventures in the Apostles on either side of the Labor Day weekend.  The post weekend trip was with the usual suspects on the annual fall trip and the pre weekend event was with five boys and two adults from the Washburn Scout troop.  While they were different, they were both fun as well as instructive.

The scout trip had five boys and three adults.  While they all lived in the Bayfield peninsula, none had been to the islands via a people powered boat.  Maps and compasses were required and explained and five crossings we did over the course of three days were uneventful though slow.  The group got strung out on the second one from Sand to York, but with light winds and mild chop it wasn't much of an issue.  I did explain why we want to stick together however and we had a nice tight formation for the last three.  We did have one double, a really good fall back if there is a weaker or ill paddler, as well as a great place to store extra 'comfort' gear.  The boys cooked us breakfast and supper over the wood fire, which I always enjoy, and had the camping part dialed in due to BWCA canoe trips and backpacking adventures in the Porkies.  The 11.5 miles from Sand Island to the Oak spit was a bit much for some of the guys but we all survived just fine.  I was determined that if the wind was over ten knots we would abort and head back to Little Sand Bay but, contrary to the forecast 15-20 out of the NE, we got light and variable, perfect for beginning paddlers.  We also had an estrogen component in the group, sis-in-law  the MayorOfTurtleRiver.  She has experience in scouting up in the Bemidji area with her two boys and was a welcome addition.  Plus she got to hang around Washburn with her eldest sis, the VoiceOfReason.  Blueberries were picked, music enjoyed at the Big Top, and a bit more paddling was squeezed in, although much more Gitchee Gumee paddling is needed in her opinion.

In keeping with that double kayak mode, RangerMark and the BadHatter decided to take the Aleut II on our fall adventure, this year to Outer Island for two nights.  Once again the spacious middle hatch allowed for such things as a restaurant style butane burner for convenient gourmet dining plus the extra space to make sure there would be enough adult beverages if we were windbound.  As usual when paddling the Apostles there were pros and cons with the pros heavily outweighing the cons.  When we arrived on Ironwood Island, our first night, we found 'Bring back the picnic tables' spelled out in sticks on one of the tent pads.  We heartily agreed.  Even though it is technically the Gaylord Nelson Wilderness Area, the campsites are far from bare bones wilderness.  They all have a large metal bear box, many paid for by a combination of the Friends and  a half dozen kayak clubs around the area, tent pads and fire areas surrounded neatly by 8 x 8 timber borders, and a iron fire ring with cooking grate.  We all have camp chairs but, like everyone gravitating to the kitchen to talk, it's just nice to have a place to lean your elbows while relaxing.  I'll bet those same kayak groups might ante up for a few tables.  I'm not sure what happened to the ones that used to be there but the ones in the group sites are really nice.   They also moved the campsite on Outer about 250 yards up the spit.  Being a creature of habit, I bombed in and did a surf landing when I saw the small sign that I thought was the campsite sign was actually the sign at the right.  Oh well, back in the boat, launch through surf and another surf landing 250yards up the beach.  We then encountered the ‘tents within a first down of this sign’ sign.  One smart ass decided that touching the sign would be a good thing, but I’m not sure the sign was needed.  There were maybe 3 or 4 places to pitch a tent and that was it.

The overall experience on both trips was outstanding however.  We watched the red light on Devils flash from the Little Sand Bay dock, and watched a thunderstorm complete with multiple lightning strikes savage the Bayfield peninsula as we sat there high and dry, protected by the Gitchee Gumee force field or something.  The Oak group site, far and away the best group site in the islands has a perfect view, big dry area for tents, and the high ground breeze that keeps the bugs at a manageable level.  For some reason the NPS is talking about closing this site, a spot where there has been human habitation for quite some time. I don’t get it but it’s on the table for some reason.  The Ironwood campsite is fabulous, an observation I made when we camped there last August. Nice tent pads, exposure to a nice breeze, and a bombproof landing area against anything but a southerly wind. The Milky Way was just cookin’ on a moonless night and we saw so many satellites we began to think there was some sort of NSA facility hidden away on Ironwood. We visited the new Cat Island site which is no longer on the beach.  It is nicely thought out with a water view but it looks like it might harbor a mosquito or two during the buggy season.  It has a cool composting privy and it will be interesting to see how that works. We even got some big water to paddle in as we began our 22 mile trip from Outer to Red Cliff.  It was all of 3-5’ which oddly enough is what NOAA forecast on the nearshore.  The north shore of Stockton offered a nice lee for a dozen or so miles and by then the wind had decided to taper off. I also have to hand it to the Red Cliff Band.  I feared no more kayak launching when the big fancy casino came in but you can launch and park for a fee and when you get done paddling a nice shower awaits you along with a beer in their lounge overlooking the harbor.  Be advised that the beer should be purchased while breathing very shallowly and taken out to the patio because every guy who used to love sitting in a bar smoking before the ban is at Red Cliff, exercising that right.

Good weather, good company, active water on Gitchee Gumee and a great park.  I couldn’t think of anywhere I would have rather been.  Now Bob and Neil, about those picnic tables………….