Not Today, Mate!

Looking up the driveway this morning after yesterday's snow storm was a mixed bag. While the snow had been cleared finally and the cars were now visible under their new white blankets, the kayaks are still a long way from the water...


But it's March and the sun was warm while I shovel around the cars. The melting has begun already. I'll be back on the water soon. Sure I will!

My Yoga App

I recall several years ago it being announced at the Delmarva Paddler's Retreat that there would be yoga session for anyone interested at 6 in the morning. Needless to say, I slept through that nonsense! With age however, has come a bit of wisdom and I am now into doing yoga. Last fall when the dawn call went out for yoga at the Ontario Greenland Camp, I was there with the others doing whatever the leader requested of us. And I truly believe I was the better for it!


Back home however doing yoga without a leader to guide you has been problematic, but not any more. There's an 'app' for that on iTunes. Actually there are lots, but the one that I like and use on my little iTouch is called 'All In Yoga' which has 200 poses one can assemble in any order to make programs or one can follow pre-set programs. I do both. As I'm a beginner at this, each of the 200 poses has a photo and description which helps one decide whether it might be useful to a paddler like me who wants to benefit from flexibility poses more than strength. Using this information, I have made up a program I've called 'Paddler' which I do a few times each week and I follow one of the app's pre-set programs called 'Sun Salutation' which I do most mornings.


When you actually run the program it automatically marks your effort on a built in calendar, Nice! Even better, I can bring my iTouch along with me camping and paddling so there's no excuse not to stay flexible doing daily yoga exercises!

Getting The Dog Out

Of course living in a northern clime isn't all long nights, hot drinks and hockey. There is lots more to do and here is an example. If you own a dog or two and they're large enough, then hitching them up to something or someone is a natural. I haven't actually tried this myself for fear of wrecking my back and ruining my kayaking career, but ski-joring with your dog is lots of fun.

I highly recommend you begin on a wide open area, say a forty acre pasture or something. That way the dog or dogs can be trained to go straight, and turn in the proper direction without you managing to hit something hard and immobile. The next step to try is shown in the above photo. Follow a deer path in the woods. The dog will usually stay on the path, nose to the ground. Finally, when all is in a controlled state, one can try heading off the path and into the trees. On this particular day, a few centimeters of snow over a hard crust allowed for some pretty exhilarating high speed slalom runs through the trees! Gee! Haw!

It Just Gets Better and Better...

What can I say...? Yesterday we snowshoed some trails, today we skied them.

All Mine, Almost...

The lake is a much quieter place these days. Many people have either closed up their cottages for the season or headed back to town, coming out only for the weekends. I like a quiet lake. It's all mine.


Or it was until this gull decided to try and grab an apple core off my front deck. I'll have to be more careful where I leave stuff...


Then as I was putting the boat and gear away in the boathouse this afternoon, this sculler slipped quickly by. He's new. I've never seen that boat on the lake before, but it's the kind of boat I don't mind sharing the lake with.

Paddling Clothes

I saw another paddler on my lake today. Up until now I've either been alone or in the company of a few fishermen trolling quietly along. My fellow paddler was noticed some distance away going in the opposite direction from me so I didn't get a chance to meet up. His or her boat appeared to be a rec boat and the only article of clothing I could positively identify was what seemed to be a straw hat...

I'm still wearing my neoprene gloves and drysuit, the water is that cold and today's air temperature was a chilly 15°C. I'm hoping the straw hat was covering up something warmer. There wasn't much wind on the lake, but I knew a front was expected during the day and that often brings in sudden wind shifts and unexpected gusts.

In the end, I paddled back up the lake to try and locate the person. I wanted to make sure they were properly outfitted and would be able to get home safely. While driving home, I saw the boat making it's way down the lake. I guess the person made it, but I don't like it when I see people out in conditions which could lead into trouble. We kayakers need all the good press we can get!

A Great Time of the Year

One of the benefits of being out on the lake at this time of the year is the incredible number of bargains strewn along the beaches. This year I was on the water within hours of the ice leaving and even now share the lake with only a few fishermen. They tend to troll along and don't get to examine the beach litter, but that's where a kayak comes in handy.

Just look at this item stranded on the beach. At first glance it seems to be a down aircraft, but it's really one of those pull toys people ride on once the water warms up. With Mother's Day just around the corner, naturally I realised I was looking at the perfect gift for my 93 year old Mother. She'd just love an excuse for getting back on the water and having some summer fun! Like an idiot, I didn't bring my tow-line with me yesterday when I discovered this item. I'm sure it will still be there today when I go paddling...

Even if it's gone, I saw lots of other stuff. There was a big purple ball (pilates, anyone?), a canoe in need of only a few repairs, some 2 inch lumber (do I see another SOF in my boathouse, one made from genuine driftwood?), in short, all sorts of goods have been left out there visible now that the winter's snow has disappeared. I just can't wait to get out exploring again so see what else I can bring home!

Life's Little Moments of Stupidity

Let's face it, we all do things now and then which we know are dumb. Sometimes we get away with the act and sometimes we don't. Here's a lovely example of one of those latter acts...

Our neighbour's woodworking shop burned to the ground the other night. It looks like it was deliberately set, so a rent-a-cop was hired to keep an eye on the scene until a complete investigation could be carried out. Now sitting in your car, out in the middle of nowhere, watching a smoldering ruin, just isn't the most exciting thing in the world to be doing. The rent-a-cop had his boxed lunch and finished off his water. Down went the car window and out went the empty water bottle.

My daughter happened to be looking out the window and saw the bottle fly into the ditch. Out she went. She walked over to the bottle, picked it up and approached the rent-a-cop's car. Just imagine the scene. A total idiot, pretending to uphold the law, gets his litter back from someone half his age. Humiliation or what? It made my day.

Even better, the arsonist has been arrested. Twenty-three years old. Now that's just plain sad.

Unhappy Anniversary...

In 1992 when it became obvious to many that increasing emissions of several gases, particularly carbon dioxide, were promoting adverse global climate changes, a meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro to discuss what might be done. This led to a 2005 meeting in Kyoto where a mechanism was decided upon which would help countries to lower their emissions in an effort to try to come to grips with slowing down and eventually ending the changes which were occurring. Today is the anniversary of that meeting in Kyoto.

The world map above indicates which countries have ratified the Kyoto Treaty or not. It is a bit misleading. For example, while Canada ratified the Treaty and began making provisions to lower emissions, our present government has done almost nothing. In fact, it reduced funding to the various efforts to lower emissions in Canada. Some parts of Canada like Québec, have continued to work on lowering emissions, but without a national plan, these efforts are not what they could be. Conversely, some countries which have not ratified the Treaty also have regions which have been working hard to reduce their emissions. Again, without a national program, results have been less than what they might have been working collectively.

So there's not much to celebrate on this anniversary day as nations, but I'm encouraged to read about successful efforts here and there, even when it's only a few people or businesses involved. As Red Green used to say, "We're all in this together...".

Happy Valentine's Day

You don't have to paddle very long or very far before you begin to meet folks who are real Valentine's people. If you don't know what I mean, then either you need to paddle more or you need to open your heart more to the world around you! To all those who know what I'm talking about, keep paddling. There's a wonderful world out there, full of exciting places to paddle, filled with wonderful people who want to meet you! Paddle forever!

Photo from Piragis.com

See How They Run

Dam at Montmagny, Québec
My concern for Canada's minority Conservative government's secret plan to alter the public's right of navigation on the small rivers of Canada and the removal of the requirement for environmental assessment and public consultation when "works" are undertaken on these rivers prompted me to write 13 letters to various people intimately involved in this decision. I emailed the letters on Sunday. Now I thought it would be interesting to see how long it takes the recipients to respond and in what fashion they do so. It will be a little exercise in democracy-in-action!

Today, Tuesday, is the second working day since sending my email. First to respond - Monday morning early - and the only one to write a personal letter stating he will be "looking into" the issue and contact his Member of Parliament, was William Munsey, deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada. Interesting.

Next to respond was Mario Laflamboise, a Liberal member and VP of the Permanent Committee of Transport and Infrastructure. His note was a simple acknowledgement of my email. Okay, but I wanted more.

This morning came another acknowledgement of my email this time from Jim Prentice's office. He's a Conservative MP and Minister of the Environment. This is the first email from a member of the Conservative government, but he'll need to do more to impress me.

I'll post updates on this item letting you know who responds and what measures they are prepared to take on behalf of maintaining the public's right to have unhindered access to Canada's rivers, and, most especially, that the environmental safeguards and reviews are kept stringent and ecologically sound in any new legislation or amendments.

Update #1 - Thursday, Feb 12
One more reply late yesterday, this time from Bruce Hyer, MP for the New Democratic Party. He wrote an informative note mentioning the NDP are on top of this issue and are working to see the amendments meet the goals of a wider group of Canadians than the Conservatives have in mind. This move by Harper's Conservatives certainly makes one wonder who the proposed amendments are intended for and why the environmental safeguards would be left in the Minister's hands alone?

Update #2 - Friday, Feb 13
Two more replies in today. The first was from David Lewis, Research and Operations Coordinator for the Green Party. He provided me with some additional links on the subject as well as the party's position. I have the feeling that these people are interested in this issue, although, they do not sit in the House.

The second reply was a simple letter of reception from the office of Joe Volpe, the Official Opposition Transport Critic. Other than assure me that Volpe will get to see my letter, nothing else was mentioned. Are these people interested? It's hard to say...

Winter Video Fun

For a while now, I've been experimenting with various video sharing sites other than Youtube. While I have shamelessly used YouTube for all my videos, I continue to be disappointed with how severely the site compresses videos when switching them into the Flash format we view when we download the videos. I have recently begun using Vimeo. These people use a bit lighter approach when converting video to Flash and they also allow HD video formating, although I have yet to use it. To make matters even more useful, it is easy to share videos on other sites like FaceBook and so on with a single mouse click. I love simplicity like that!

This video shows off the latest family activity, yet another winter sport to keep away the winter blues. I have no intention of getting into it, but it's certainly fun to watch both people and dogs enjoying themselves!

Skiing With Dogs

Lots of people kayak with their dogs. I've even seen videos of people rolling their kayak while their dog calmly walks around the hull and back up on the deck as the boat turns in the water. Skiing with your dog isn't new either, but ski-joring with our dog is new to me so I thought I'd share pictures taken in the last few days.

The really low temperatures we've had recently had made getting out there a bit of a trial - it's been -20°C and colder with some wind - but having dogs that demand exercise gets one out cold or not. I'm not about to strap myself to a dog so I can be flailed about, but I must admit that those who do get to ski a lot faster than I do. And I know, the dog ought to be on the trail, but hey, she's new at this and actually doing very well! She's often on trail, on task and pulling like a real trooper.


I might try seeing if our dogs would like to pull the kayak this summer. I know they like to swim. Maybe I'll start a whole new sport: kayak-joring...

What Does It Mean?

The other day I talked about how some bloggers begin to slow down and then stop posting altogether. There are lots of reasons, perhaps as many as there are bloggers. Closer to home is another slightly worrisome fact: I haven't paddled this year as often as I did last year...

For fun, I've kept a record of each kayak outing I've done during the past few years on my Palm Zire PDA. The picture above shows the database screen on my PDA. It's open at record #51. That's the last outing of over an hour's paddle that I've been on this year. Yes, YEAR! A year ago, I was well over 100 outings by this date... What's happened?

I began paddling in January much like in 2007. I then headed south, but didn't paddle nearly as much as I stayed with my sister and her husband who was in poor health. I lost as many as 30 paddling days right there, but don't regret that for a second. The same thing occurred in September when I returned to Georgia. Again perhaps as many as 20 paddling days missed. During the summer, in spite of traveling to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine, poor weather seem to keep me off the water more than usual.

It's easy to make excuses for not paddling. I'm going to have to work more on making excuses for NOT paddling if I'm to regain the higher number of outings I've achieved in previous years!

You'd Think...

... that with digital photography making it easy and cheap to take countless photos of interesting situations, I'd take more than one picture when the wind and waves conspire to make it fun out there. Not today. Here is the only sample from a fun, chilly, wet, sunny few hours on the water. At least no one can accuse me of being a great photographer, although that water droplet is rather well placed for visual effect, don't you agree?

Ferry On Over

Taking the ferry on the Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia this summer.
Speaking of ferries, why not ferry on over to my other blog and catch up on how my lonely survivor of Franklin's ill-fated expedition is doing? I've sadly neglected to update the story for almost a year, but I'm back at it with the view to try and finish before... well... to finish it!

Safety Bay

While out paddling in the winds the other day, the idea was to paddle up-wind and then surf back the way I'd come. The winds were kicking up some good sized breaking waves making the windward leg a real workout. The kayak would regularly bury its nose in the advancing wave, then bounce up, over to crash into the trough with a bang and a splash. Needless to say after about a mile or so up wind, it was good to reach this little bay, dubbed 'Safety Bay' for the occasion. I wasn't the only one taking a breather. The surface was covered with hundreds of leaves waiting their turn to head down the lake towards the outlet and whatever fate had in for them.

After a moment to let the adrenaline subside, I would charge into the fray once again, this time trying to catch a few good rides down the backs of waves. Once at the starting point, it was a quick turn, the odd brace to avoid going over and another slow climb back to 'Safety'. The wind held out longer than I did. It was a fresh, young thing, I guess...

I don't get to paddle in heavy wind and big waves very often, so it was good practice for those times when I do get out on the ocean where conditions like these are much more common. Oh, that that could happen more!

Want An Adventure?

There are those who claim an 'Adventure' occurs when the unexpected happens, and not the other way around. Others see the unexpected as an 'Accident'. Either way, it seems some people expect the unexpected. Some get lucky and walk away. Some don't.


I went paddling today. It was sunny, calm, warmish - about 16°C - the water definitely chilling down now that it's fall. I noticed a lady launch her rec-kayak... I didn't say anything other than 'hello'. About an hour later, the wind had picked up considerably, the clouds had begun obscuring the sun and there was a chill in the air. I was crossing the lake heading home when I noticed the lady in the rec-kayak (see the tiny dot mid-photo). It occurred to me she had no spray-skirt, no immersion gear and no pfd visible when I'd seen her launch. I hope she did now because conditions were changing quickly and she had a mile or more of upwind paddling to do before she got home.

I always worry when I see people out there setting themselves up for an 'Adventure'. Personally, I'd rather enjoy my outings and keep the unexpected events to a minimum.

Errr... Not Quite

Everywhere you look these days as you paddle along the shores of the lake, people are busy putting things away, cleaning up and preparing for the coming winter. It's part of the routine each year, but there are some people who just don't seem to be in the 'How It's Done' loop.


Take this item, a ride-on toy designed to be pulled behind a motor boat. Why is it being left under this tree? Surely that's not quite what you'd call 'winter storage'. I always wonder about these items: should I tow them home and have a boathouse sale in the spring?

Oops!

The temperature was down to an ungodly 7°C yesterday when I put the kayak in the water. Knowing it was chilly, I dressed in my Fall paddling gear for the first time since the summer. No more short-sleeves, no more partial spray-skirt. Now it was serious. I donned my Reed 'Stealth' jacket which has the spray skirt attached. I clambered into the boat, attached the shirt and then...


...I looked down. Can you see what I saw? I hope so. I was headed for a potential accident. Here's what I should have seen when I looked down...


... the pull tag on the spray-skirt showing and ready to grab if and when I should need it! One more little thing to check before pushing off, but, oh, so important. This particular skirt fits so snuggly that it's quite difficult to remove without access to the pull tag. With bare hands paddling in 7°C air, I would have been in serious difficulty trying to wet exit should I have had to - and you just never know. I fail rolls all the time, perhaps you do as well. Don't let a mistake like this happen to you!

The remainder of the paddle passed without incident!