Chlorine or gunpowder: An easy choice for me

GalwayGuy arrived home via Amtrak late Saturday night after a rigorous semester at grad school in St Louis. The last time he had tipped over his Capella was in the brisk waters of Lake Superior off the Keweenaw peninsula in late August. This meant that I would likely be inhaling the fetid, chlorine saturated air of the Brooklyn Park community pool during Sunday's rolling session. I discovered however (perhaps a Freudian slip?) that I had double booked myself.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher had invited a number of folks to shoot with him for charity at the county indoor range. Foreclosures in Ramsey County, MN are up significantly and one of the little publicized effects of this increase is on renters. If a property owner is in foreclosure they have no legal obligation to inform their renters. This means honest folks who have been paying their rent can be thrown out of their homes with zero notice when the property is foreclosed. The sheriff, who's department 'gets to' execute these foreclosures I would imagine, decided that something needed to be done and came up with the first annual "I Shot with the Sheriff" pistol shoot. For a modest donation to one of five charities that serve people that are vicitimized by this practice, a person could shoot 50 rounds at increasingly longer distances with the sheriff's department personnel, including the sheriff himself. If you managed to beat him, you were awarded an "I Out-shot the Sheriff"certificate.

I failed to outshoot the sheriff. I learned from one of the SWAT team guys that the sheriff is a ringer, one of the top 5% of marksmen out of roughly 400 people in the department. I was a bit rusty and the first couple of rounds got away from me but it was a very nice afternoon and for a great cause. I had dropped GG off at the pool, holding my breath to avoid chlorine poisoning, and then picked him up so we could head down to Grumpys Bar to watch the end of the football game. He needed to wash the foul taste of all that St Louis Budweiser from his palate with a bit of Surly Bender and I need to help drink up the Summit Kolsch to make room in the tap lineup for the Summit Winter Ale.

It was a pretty good Sunday. All of the mornings goals for both of us,with the glaring exception of beating the sheriff , were accomplished by about 4pm that afternoon. Summit Winter Ale is still not on tap at Grumpy's so we went down there last night and continued to chip away at the Kolsch but everything is moving in the right direction. GG's stick roll came back, my tight groups returned on about the third five round series, and Catholic Charities, the Union Gospel Misson, and the other three charities have several thousand bucks that they didn't have before Sheriff Fletchers fundraiser. A great start to the holiday season.

Paddle club rendezvous

Even though the paddling season is ending in this area, evidenced by the appearance of portable ice houses on Pokegema Lake yesterday, people are already mentally transporting to spring and ice out. I got an email last week from SteveM, noted Illinois paddler and fellow fine beer afficianado, letting me know about a rendezvous of midwest paddling clubs that will take place on the Saturday of Canoecopia. The plan for the evening is below.

First Annual Paddling Club Rendezvous

Mark your calendars for March 13th 2010 at Canoecopia. Rutabaga and The Illinois Paddling Council will be hosting the first annual Paddling Club Rendezvous on Saturday evening from 5:30-7:00pm in the Superior Room at the Clarion Hotel next to the Alliant Energy Center campus. Piizza and soft drinks will be served. All club members and non members are welcome! The Rendezvous is an opportunity for paddling club members from all over the Midwest to get together to network, share favorite paddling destinations, plan joint activities, recruit new members, and just get to know each other over pizza and soda.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

This sounds like a fine way to interact with members of other clubs in the midwest and learn about some paddle destinations other than the usual ones that everyone knows about. It does however, run directly opposite the annual Lake is the Boss Canoecopia Debriefing, held every year at the Crystal Corner Bar on Willy St in Madison. Last year high ranking members of the Missouri River Paddlers, Central Iowa Paddlers, SKOAC, Mad City Paddlers, and the Inland Sea Kayakers had a long and productive meeting at the west end of the big horseshoe bar at the CCB. This confab at the Clarion Hotel has the potential to replace the Lake is the Boss event but for one glaring omission: beer.

I'm sure an overwhelming majority of paddlers, at least the ones I know, would agree that 'pizza and beer' is much more resonant and rolls off the tongue much smoother than 'pizza and soda'. As luck would have it, I even know a few brewery folk that would probably be happy to donate a bit of beer to a fine event such as this with hopes that new paddling destinations and their beer might be introduced to what should prove to be a fine group of potential customers. I might even be able to make this happen with a minimal amount of effort, which is the amount of effort I usually like to expend. I'm sure there is a dizzying and malodorous pile of legal crap that can be trotted out to pooh pooh this plan, but most organizations hand out two drink tickets when folks walk in the door to placate the plaintiffs bar and that's all you get. Of course an immdediate black market in drink tickets springs up, but that's what our capitalist system is all about.

I like the idea of a paddling club meet and greet. This should even lure my two Madison paddling cronies, the FrugalFisherman and the Commish. One is too cheap to even attend Canoecopia and the other sticks me with parking every time we go. I do feel that crowd size, ambiance, and social interaction can all be enhanced by the presence of a little barley pop. Just let me know. I can git er done.

PS I also heard that, like This is the Sea 3, Justine Curgenven will debut This is Canoeing at this years event. I'm looking forward to that almost as much as the beer!

Back from Portland

This weekend the VOR and I, accompanied by my sister and her hubby, visited No1 son and lady friend out in Portland, OR. A car rental snafu had us (me) accusing my sister of renting the car in Portland, ME but it was sorted out and we were on our way. On our last trip we hit the ocean by driving about an hour and a half west of the city. This year it would be the Columbia Gorge and Mt Hood about the same distance east of Portland.

The normal angst of air travel seems to be minimal in the Portland airport. We remarked on this years ago when the Dr Jekyll Northwest employees surprised us after being herded and barked at by their Mr. Hyde counterparts at Minneapolis/St Paul. The presence of a Powell books outlet and a Rogue Brewery brewpub, both featuring non airport prices by the way, makes the normal airport stress much more manageable. The city itself is also pretty stress free due to its compact size. Both Denver and Portland were at roughly the same point in the early '70's. Portland chose planned growth, defined city boundaries, and mass transit. Denver sprawled out like a fat guy watching the Viking/Cardinals defeat in his Lazy Boy, belly protruding from his Favre jersey, a trail of chips and beer bottles between the kitchen and his chair, and crumbs and empties strewn haphazardly around him. I've spent a bit of time in both cities and I'll take Portland, thanks. We stayed at a brewpub, one of the many McMenimans properties, which is convenient on any number of levels. Portland has 42 operating breweries, making it the national leader. Non beer drinking outdoor activities began with a hike up a waterfall laden creek that flowed down to the Columbia Gorge. The temperate rain forest climate has everything covered with moss and lichens,a pretty radical change from our woods around here, even thought the temps did hover around freezing,which made it feel like home. From there the plan was to hit Mt Hood and the historic Timberline Lodge, one of the more successful uses of 'stimulus money' from the WPA program of the 1930's. We had wanted to do a bit of snowshoeing but temps of 6F combined with wind gusting to 50mph forced us into the bar. We had planned to visit the famous Japanese Garden and Rose Garden in Portland for some hiking as well but the winds and cold followed us down the hill. We opted for some indoor touring at the historic Pittock mansion, one of the founders of the Oregonian newspaper and investor in many of the popular extractive industries of the early 20th century.
Thus concludes the Portland travelogue. We did pass a few kayak shops in Hood River but they were far outstripped by the windsurfing shops. Kayaking and beer drinking overlapped at the Full Sail brewery in Hood River, where a lovely handmade wood strip sea kayak was on display. At 17' x 22" wide with a retractable skeg and flush hatches, it looked like a fine sea kayak and could be yours for a mere $6,500. It was probably good marketing because the more beers I had the better it looked, but in the end we decided to pass. Next year I have a plan formulating in my brain to ski Mt Hood one day and paddle the Pacific the next. The VOR wants to climb Mt. St Helens after hearing No1 son talk about his ascent. Plus, we barely scratched the 42breweries. Looks like we're heading back.

Gitchee Gumee's getting windier

I suppose I better kick out a kayaking post. I'm sure some readers are indifferent or even slightly offended by my two month long deer hunting obsession. I will however, have nearly 50 pounds of ring bologna, all meat weiners, bacon, Ukranian sausage, and brats, not to mention the steaks, chops, and backstraps. Its a good start to the winter larder. One of the crucial elements of successful deer hunting is an acute awareness of the wind. If one looks at the gigantic whitetail snout, it becomes apparent that they can smell any faint unnatural smell in the woods from a long ways away. In a way, the wind is the deers friend and the hunters as well if you take it into account when you enter the woods. As a kayaker on the other hand, I can't think of a time when I thought the wind was my 'friend' and apparently its getting windier all the time on my favorite lake.

Chad Dally wrote an article in the Ashland Daily Press entitled, "Research Showing a Warmer, Windier Lake Superior". The theory is that greater differences between the air and water temp make for more stable weather. A convergence of the two causes windier conditions. It's an interesting read and made me think about wind conditions on the lake over the past dozen years or so. In my unscientific, anecdotal, and completely subjective opinion, I will hereby confirm the observations of the scientists at UW-Madison and UM-Duluth. I'm sure they will be ecstatic when they get the news.

In the first five years of the past decade, I don't remember being windbound at all. Maybe we should have been but were too dumb and inexperienced to realize it. In the past five years though, not only have we been windbound, but on at least a half dozen occasions we've been forced to turn around. The usual scenario involves coming around a point, paddling for a half mile or so, and turning to look your paddling companions in the eye and wait for the first one to say, "Screw this shit, lets head back and have a beer". On the other hand, last season the VOR and I slogged for an endless nine miles from Devil's to York Island into the teeth of a gusting 20 knot northwest wind. We didn't feel nearly so old or so tired when we found a group of college students from UW-Stout setting up camp on York after deciding they were 'windbound'. One of the leaders told me that it had taken them nearly two and a half hours to paddle the three miles from Raspberry to York and they felt it prudent to bag it for the day with the group of rookies.

Surfing when windbound can be tons of fun, the most fun you can have sitting down as they say. When its as windy as the image at the top of the post however, with the only reason the tent isn't blown away being the carcass of the FrugalFisherman holding it down, even surfing becomes problematic. It was that very same day that RangerMark took the flattering photo of me doing my pitcher plant imitation at the top of this blog after a wine and cheese party in a sheltered bog on Rocky Island.

Nope, I can't say that I enjoy wind much at all when on the lake. Providing a bit of chop or a few waves to make paddling a bit more interesting or maybe to give an assist in drift fishing is OK but I'd have to call those breezes. When it comes to a real wind on the water, you can keep it, thanks.

The GurneyGranny's organic venison tenderloin recipe

Prep time: 14 hours

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
-Fresh venison tenderloins
-Sea salt
-Freshly ground pepper
-peanut oil
-Browning A-bolt, .257 Roberts caliber
-Sharp knife
-Stout rope

Prep: Put bad Maxwell House coffee in percolator at 5am. Trudge off to blind at 6:15am. Identify 9 point buck at 8:30am. Shoot. Field dress. Drag. Register with DNR in Iron River. Graciously accept their, "nice buck! comment. Hang on buck pole to cool. Return to blind for afternoon hunt. Identify 8 point buck at 4pm. Repeat above procedure. Variation: holler for the BearWhisperer since you no longer have a valid buck tag. Note that 'party hunting' within shouting distance is perfectly legal in Wisconsin.

Cooking: Filet tenderloins from deer. Heat oven in Detroit Jewel to Very Hot (check out dial settings in image). Insert heirloom cast iron skillet. Rub the tenderloins with peanut oil and salt and pepper liberally. Put hot skillet on wide open burner and sear for one minute on each side. Return to oven to finish, 2 minutes per side. Tenderloins will be perfectly medium rare and can be cut with a butter knife. Be sure to ask camp members how they want their steaks done, even though you plan to make them all medium rare. It tends to empower them and build their self esteem. Sides include fresh frozen sweet corn, garlic mashed potatoes, and fresh bakery bread. Oh, and maybe a few bottles of wine.

This years efforts of the menly buck hunters at camp were eclipsed by the GurneyGranny's two buck performance. She richly deserved it however, after all the 'butt hours' she put in over the last few seasons. Since she is a moderate woman in her alcohol consumption (unlike the KingOfIronwoodIsland), I was forced to jump in and pick up the slack to help her celebrate her two bucks vicariously by sipping a Bushmill's or three.

This year Wisconsin sold 626,000 deer licenses. Of that, roughly 8% were women. Among young hunters however, girls made up 20% of the licensees. When we were kids, a woman in the woods was very rare. GG's dad, ButcherBlockBob, drove up for a couple days to deliver his exquisite handmade butcher block table for the cut up shack. I think he was pretty proud that his eldest daughter was the leader in the clubhouse, so to speak.