I had the honor of leading a great group of veterans and volunteers for our Team River Runner National Sea Kayak Clinic, Aug. 21-26. Five nights on beautiful Rock Island State Park in Lake Michigan off the northern tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula with lots of instruction and good times. […]
Tag: Door County
Top 10 Paddle Days of 2021
The Internet loves lists so I’m capping off the year with my top 10 list of favorite kayaking days of 2021. First some stats… Each year I track the “who, what, when, and where” of my paddles, plus other info such as river levels, water and air temperature and so […]
Views of a Lighthouse
With a snowstorm projected to hit today (it did), yesterday seemed like a good time to shoot video at the Cana Island Lighthouse (it was). The lighthouse is located just north of Baileys Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin. Along with the Baileys Harbor Range Lights, the lighthouse was built to […]
Paddling During the Pandemic
It’s tough for kayakers to get out to enjoy the water these days. So far this year COVID-19 travel restrictions and questions about what constitutes safe outdoor recreation during these “uncertain times” have kept some paddlers from paddling. I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of kayaking (28 times this […]
Kayak Summer Camp: DCSKS
The annual Door County Sea Kayak Symposium (DCSKS) is always one of my favorite weekends of the year. This year the 15th annual DCSKS — my eighth as an instructor — was once again a sold-out event, with 170 paying participants, 30 instructors, a handful of staff members from Rutabaga […]
Camping with a TRAK Kayak
Can a TRAK folding kayak safely carry more than 60 pounds of camping gear? I was fairly certain it could but I had to check it out for myself. So that’s what I did this past Labor Day weekend while camping at Wisconsin’s Rock Island State Park. I organized this […]
Kayak Deaths in Door County
I’m saddened to report that my post last Thursday about drownings in the Great Lakes became eerily prescient just one day later. Two young men lost their lives last Friday while kayaking on Lake Michigan near Cave Point Park in Wisconsin’s Door County, where I often paddle. The following day […]
Kayak Surfing in a Whitewater Boat
Here’s a quick video of some of my kayak surfing this past Friday afternoon. Earlier my wind-surfing neighbor, David, texted to let me know the forecast called for waves out of the south, which meant we would have big waves on the NW side of the Big Pond. We headed […]
My Encounter With Traveling Ted
For the past seven years I have served as an instructor at the annual Door County Sea Kayak Symposium (DCSKS), held the second weekend in July and presented by Rutabaga Paddlesports. This year there were 160 participants with more than 40 instructors and assistants. One of those participants was a […]
Door County rock hopping
A short video of Chris and me as we played in the bouncy waves at Cave Point County Park north of Sturgeon Bay, WI. The easiest access by kayak to this picturesque spot is to launch at Schauer Park, about 1.5 miles north of Cave Point. Always check the wind […]