There was a lot of movement over this years 4th weekend. Friday night found us listening to the weather radio as violent thunderstorms raced toward us and our packed boats, which were sitting on the beach at Little Sand Bay in preparation for the crossing to Sand Island. We wisely chose not to launch and stood on the dock in our rain gear watching cloud to ground lightning hammer Sand Island and the waves build from flat calm to three footers in about 10 minutes. We had moved the boats up high on the beach and tied them to a tree, a wise move when we checked their original parking spot the next morning and discovered that it had washed out into the lake. Saturday began with a solo day paddle for me as my thunderstorm companions headed to Rocky Island and I awaited the noon arrival of a quartet of different paddling companions, including the VOR, RangerMark and the GTC, and the KingOfIronwoodIsland. A nice afternoon paddle, supper at the Deepwater with BetseyBeads and then I took one for the team. I accompanied the VoiceOfReason to the Arrival From Sweden show, an Abba tribute band, at the Big Top Chautauqua tent. Waterloo and Dancing Queen indeed. When the VOR pointed out, "Gee, this is the first time we've been here at the tent and not run into anyone we know", I wisely left the bat on my shoulder for a called third strike.This years 4th of July was a classic though. Too much food, good beer, fireworks, and a day spent on the water. Enough writing, check out the images.
Lots of paddling, including a double paddle boat.
A crazy Hobie pedal kayak. You do need a paddle to go backwards however.
The ultimate water toy, the famous Windsor Castle or, as it's known on the lake, The aquamarine party machine.
The above mentioned good food, in this case all of the basic 4th of July food groups including tube steak, shrimp, corn, onions, and spuds.
The fireworks, complete with lake reflection.
And last but not least, a lovely rustlers moon over the white pines. I hope everyone enjoyed their celebration of the 235th birthday of the American Experiment.
4 comments:
I have to know - did we see you? We were kayaking around the shoreline on Sat. July 2. You told us about a little beach around the corner. My husband had a video camera attached to the front of his kayak. We are both VERY avid readers of your blog - and didn't want to ask if that was really you!! You're a great writer - keep it up!
That was indeed me. I remember you guys and the camera. I hope you had a good paddle. Seems like the lake started to lay back down around 2 pm. It was a good day on the water. I'm glad you decided not to cross to Sand. It was getting a bit dicey right around the time we met.
Wow! We knew it! My husband said he wanted to ask you but then didn't and regreted it! We had a great paddle around shoreline, found the beach and rested/ate there. The next day the waters were calm so we crossed the channel to Sand and went through the sea caves - it was amazing! Last year we had a really rough paddle - 8 hours of hard waves - we were in over our heads - which is why I was so concerned about crossing (even we were def prepared equipment wise - just not experience wise. I'm glad we waited until the next day. Thanks to you and your blog during the past year- we've continued to learn about safety and kaying Lake Superior. We'll be up again in August- hope to see you out on the waters! One last question - your paddle - what are the advantages of that type of paddle over the regular ones like we had?
Paddle was a Greenland stick (Inuit or traditional paddle). You can read more about them at the QajaqUSA site or click on Derricks Kayak Quixotica link on the side of my blog. Reams of pro/con out there but a lot of people find them more user friendly. I just like the way I can move my boat in all directions with em, including that 360 degree rotation they call the roll.
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