Fall Paddle.....

One of the last paddles this year. Three friends and a small but beautiful lake in Manitoba's Whiteshell Provincial Park. It involved an hour long portage in, and then, thanks to a local fisherman, we found a short five minute exit a few meter's farther along the shore for the exit......live and learn!

Season's Greetings

I always seem to wait till the last minute to stow the boats......

The river out front here at home and the big lakes are finally "ice" and I'm out "on the water" on skis these days.

Cold water lessons.....1-10-1......

Just stumbled across this video featuring Professor "Popsicle" from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg...He's famous for inducing hypothermia in his students or any other interested volunteers. I photographed him a few years ago as he completed a study involving a forced march down the entire length of Lake Winnipeg in January.....

The link is here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1xohI3B4Uc --

Sorry I haven't figured out how to actually put the video here yet.......

But the core element in this is the 1-10-1 principle Dr Geisbrecht professes...
upon cold water immersion you have:
1 - minute to get your breathing under control,
10 - minutes of meaningful movement.
1 - hour before you lose conciousness
1-10-1

...After a Long Absence.......

Georgian Bay

It's been a while, but I'm back.....back from a time out online, and co-incidently, back from my first kayak "workout" in some time.

Over the past two winter's I've had two surgeries, one on each shoulder to repair rotator cuff damage, long term damage due to weight bearing....I carry much heavy gear in my "day job" and it has taken it's toll on my 50 plus yr old shoulders.....both surgeries were successfull, but the recovery is a year long process.......excuses...excuses......

To make a long story short, I took part in a Paddle Canada Level 1 Instructor / Guide school at White Squall (www.whitesquall.com) with the gracious consent of Tim Dyer who with his wife Kathy and son Jessie hosted my stay.

The Whitesquall guide school offers Level 1 Instructor certification, Guide certification and Level 2 Skills assessment as required. The seven day program includes a five day trip on Georgian Bay including classroom sessions before during and after, teaching clinics and ongoing skill assessment.

My left shoulder, (the most recent surgery), proved painfull on the first day of serious paddling and once we made camp at Snake Island, I decided to forgo the more difficult paddling in favor of healing. Teaching sessions on land and water were a go, and lighter paddling too, so I came home with a wealth of new experience, new paddling friends (an amazing group) and a mitt full of photos!


Here's a taste..........


Loadin' up!

Squeezin' in...

Takin off!

Ahhhhh......

Landfall! Snake Island.

Study Lounge.

Stowed.

Red Sky.....

See the yaks....to the right of the island.

The perfect classroom!

Another perfect classroom!

....back to our roots...

Solstice Sunset 1

Solstice Sunset 2

Departure.

Lunch Break.

Welcome Back (Massasauga Rattler)


This greatgroup all passed with honors! They are now all Level 1 Instructors certified by Paddle Canada, and full fledged Sea Kayak Guides! Congratulations all!

***

Posting this I've decided to wait (like my surgeon suggested) for the full year before taking on any "serious" kayaking challenges, I'll teach Paddle Canada Level1 Skills this year and work on regaining my shoulder strength and skills paddling where and when I can!

***




Cya on the water!

****Note*****

As always, images on this site are property of the blogger, or used by the blogger with permission of the owner.

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE DOWNLOADING.

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Wayfinding (NOT)

GPS is a complex technology but understanding it can be quite easy if you take it one step at a time. This tutorial is designed to give you a good basic understanding of the principles behind GPS without loading you down with too much technical detail.

In the old days, not that many years ago, the technical side of navigation was pretty easy to understand. Magnetic compasses were simple objects, and map reading was a matter of basic orientation. Today you can't understand how navigation works without a degree in quantum physics.

So I will try and simplify it for you.

As a neophyte, don't get hung up on things like differential correction, GNSS surveying, dual frequency measurement and ionospheric or tropospheric deviation. Believe me no one cares if your plod-booster receiver runs at 7.6Dh or lower, so there's no need to feel inadequate. Concentrate on how the digital information is triangulated conceptually. Fortunately this is easy to grasp. The GPS chip comprises a new element, Creatium (C), not to be confused with the speed of light (C). When these collide, they excite multitudes of particles known as morons (m). At critical mess, the nuclear bisons---agitated beyond control---stampede into isotopes, providing stuff stash outsource integration with plug-and-play, point-and-shoot, drag-and-drop convenience. In short, datum emergence (as we experts say) is a result of morons excited by light/creatium, or e=mc (squared).

Hope this helps.


Gotcha
-30-

Terrifying Splendor

In the preface of her book "Mistehay Sakahegan, The Great Lake", author Francis Russell quotes Franco Manitoba author Gabrielle Roy, who asks

"Does one ever, fundamentally, get over a great lake?"

It's a seductive siren Lake Winnipeg's call, a dissonant harmony of beauty and treachery. This incomparable lake can bring sure disaster if not given her due regard.


Mistehay Sakahegan has me in it's grip.


To the Cree, it was Mistehay Sakahegan, "Great Lake".
To the Ojibwe, it was Gitchi gumee, also "Great Lake".
To the Assinaboine, it was Men-ne-wakan or "Mysterious Water"
Europeans used the word "Win-ni-pak, wi-nipi, or Winnepe, all Cree for "turbid or muddy water"

Later as my Scot ancestors started to arrive, Valentine McKay a fur trader acquainted with the Cree Language, supplied another version. He wrote, "Winnipeg is a Cree name. When properly pronounced it sounds like Wee-ni-pake and the word means sea or something beyond an ordinary lake. In Cree, ocean is kitchi-wee-ni-pake meaning the "Great Sea".

No wonder then we often refer to Lake Winnipeg as the Prairie Ocean.


By way of introduction to the book, ergo the Lake, Val Werier speaks to it's vastness, "It is four and a half times the size of the province of Prince Edward Island." Then talking to those who earn their keep on this "gumee", the fisher's feelings reflect their "awe and trepidation".
The sub-title of this book reels me in.

"The Beauty and the Treachery of Lake Winnipeg".

This simple line of text gives meaning to and hints at another level of understanding, it provides a small clue to "Mistehay Sakhegan's" counter-point personality.

It's beauty is undeniable.

In the mid 1800's surveying the basins of the Red, Assinaboine and Saskatchewan rivers,
John Fleming wrote, "We entered Lake WInnipeg at sunset, and camped not far from the mouth of the Saskatchewan, upon a narrow spit of gravel, separated from the wooded shores by a marsh. The night was clear and beautiful, and the lake wonderfully calm. From our bivouac, where we lay with cramped limbs outstretched on the shingle beach, could be seen the great headland, Kitchi-nashi, vanishing away to the south east in the far distant horizon. A view very extensive and beautiful, but which betokened many hours of paddling and tracking out of the direct course to the Red River. To the east and north the only limit to our gaze was the dim horizon of the great lake which lay tranquilly out-spread before us like an unruffled sea."


Modern day paddlers will recognize Long Point (Kitchi-nashi) from Flemming's description.
The 40 km long point stretches east, out into the North Basin just south of the Saskatchewan River.

This prairie ocean gets my attention by way of it's beauty.




It's unwavering demand for respect keeps me focused.

A close paddling friend, Phil Manaigre has circumnavigated Lake Winnipeg.
His description best illustrates the magnetism of the lake's "Spirit".

"It's an ocean smack in the middle of the prairies. They say if you can windsurf or kayak Lake Winnipeg, you can do it anywhere. It's considered one of the roughest, most dangerous bodies of water in the world. I have some of the voyageurs' accounts and, in all of their travels Lake Winnipeg was the body of water they feared most. It is often referred to as killer lake. It is a wicked lake. A storm can brew up in a minute and if you're not careful, it will kill you. But I've always had a love affair with the lake. I've been attracted by it's rugged beauty, the power of all that raw energy, for a long time. It's always that element. You never know what to expect."

He tallys up my irresistible attraction;
"It's her moods. She is almost like a femme fatale. You're seduced by this beauty. And then those winds come at you. The beauty, the raw energy. It's always there. You have to respect it."

The allure of this lake is truly seductive and at the same time truly fearsome.
Ying and Yang, how can I resist.



Aboriginal peoples have always had a spiritual connection with this "Great Lake".
Perhaps this connection too embodies not only the attraction, but the respect I feel.

Eric Robinson, a Member of Manitoba Legislature and long time Cabinet Minister is the son of a Lake Winnipeg Cree fisher. He recalled almost losing a brother to the lake.
"My older brother,...was fishing on Lake Winnipeg and his boat overturned in a storm...He tied himself to the bottom of the boat, which had capsized. It was about a day before he was finally rescued by some other fishers. There was gratitude on my mother and father's side that his life was spared by the water.....My father and my uncles told us that this lake not only held our sustenance in the form of fish, but also it held much more spiritual significance.....We were always told, if we were fishing or going on a trip or using the lake for whatever purpose, that the lake is in command and it should always be respected. We were advised by the old people that extra care must be taken because of the power of the lake."

He describes a small sacred ceremony.

A rite of passage.

"Before people set out on their journeys they would offer something, usually tobacco, to the spirits of the water, for a safe travel, that no lives be lost. That was how sacred that lake was regarded in days gone by."

I honor the spirit of Mistehay Sakahegan with my own scattering of tobacco whenever I can.

Sometimes just because I can.

-30-

*****

I wish to acknowledge the kind generosity of Heartland Publishers.
References and quotations in this post were taken liberally, from their book "Mistehay Sakahegan, THE GREAT LAKE" by Francis Russell. (ISBN1-896150-10-1)

Winner of the Margaret MacWilliams Award for Popular History in 2000, my copy is becoming ever more dog-eared and is a permanent fixture on my reading table.
*****

Pelican Alley

"Bird's Eye" is what I first called this image.
Pelicans are a common sight from my kayak's cockpit. In Manitoba they populate bodies of water small as an acre and flock to our "Prairie Ocean" Lake Winnipeg.


They are the largest bird in North America.





According to my Peterson Field Guide they are; "Huge water birds with long flat bills and great throat pouches (flat when deflated). Neck long, body robust. Sexes alike. They swim buoyantly and fly with head hunched back on shoulders and long flat bill resting on breast. Flocks fly in orderly lines, and alternate several flaps with a glide, each bird taking the rhythm from the bird ahead."

While descriptive, Peterson's paragraph is diminished at once seeing a long line of these birds soaring impossibly, inches above the water as if some opposing magnetic polarity keeps them "just" airborne.

One then the next flapping in orderly rhythm, each head tucked back and indifferent to this mortal splashing my double blade as their procession passes. My arms wield carbon fiber, clumsy in comparison to feather.

Imitation is not flattery.

Reading further, Peterson describes their wingspan as, "Huge; spread 8-91/2 feet." Just two pelicans span the length of my Sea Kayak on average. I struggle where their wings barely flutter.

White Pelicans, according to Peterson again, do not plunge from the heights to take their prey like their southern kin Brown Pelicans. White Pelicans scoop fish and crustaceans into that "great throat pouch" while afloat.

Turning the tables, I photographed this flock from above as they maintained that regal posture. Buoyant, each in turn slipping into the eddy taking a fish and exiting as the next great bird entered.

-30-

Pass It On

Young kayaking prospect, Kugaaruk, Nunavut, Canada 2002

It's late February here, and in this part of the world it's time to sort photographs and review past paddles and dream up places and reasons to start all over again come spring.

Sorting some old photos on my hard drive I found this ten year old portrait of a young paddler patiently waiting his turn on the gravel beach in Canada's Arctic. It reminded me why I teach and coach paddling today.

In the spring of 1998, I made plans with the late "Kabloona", Victoria Jason to join her for a month 300 or so kms north of the Arctic Circle in a hamlet known then as Pelly Bay. Victoria was returning where she had "walked" during her transit of the North West Passage.

To my knowledge she's still the only woman to complete a kayaking passage through that historic northern route, and she completed it alone. She returned to Pelly Bay in order to paddle the bay where she pulled her kayak on the first passage......short Arctic seasons dictated she walk across sea ice on different legs of her journey. Victoria took four summers to complete the passage, in early spring her kayak "Windsong", followed on a komatik, the traditional northern sled, as she walked parts of historic route.

Victoria asked me that spring to take a kayak "instructor's course" with her as she planned to "pass on" kayaking skills while she was in Pelly Bay the coming summer.
"What harm could that do" I thought, and we took a four day "Basic" instructor's course at the University of Manitoba, a course sanctioned then by the Manitoba Recreation Canoe Association. That course was my first introduction to any formal paddling instruction. Led by Mick Lautt of WAVpaddling, a team of provincial paddling coaches took us through the course and allowed me passage on the condition that I assist another instructor with a number of classes before actually teaching.

Little did they know I would be knee deep Pelly Bay itself that summer "re-acquainting" Inuit as young as this little guy and hamlet Elders, some who actually remembered their fathers building and paddling skin covered craft. Pelly Bayhunters used kayaks to pursue and spear caribou crossing the water in herds.






Pelly Bay elder, Martha Ittimangnak remembered the painfull labour of covering over the spruce kayak frames her husband created from bone and driftwood. "we used caribou skin, wet it first to make the hair come off easier," she said through her son-in-law Vincent Ningark. Martha was 80 during that 1998 interview, or at least, that was the popular estimate. Martha was born on the land long before the written record keeping began in her world. People lived on the land then, as much part of the natural world as the caribou, seal and narwhale they still hunt.









Motorboats began to replace kayaks as southern technology encroached in the 1950's and 1960's.

The nomadic population of Pelly Bay was first documented by search parties looking for the missing Franklin expedition. Hunters reported seeing surviving remnants of the tragic British expedition near Pelly Bay. Ill clad British sailors dragging small boats on a death march into oblivion, seeking the same passage Victoria paddled.

Pelly Bay is known now by the traditional name of Kugaaruk in the new territory of Nunavut. ( The bay it sits on is still Pelly Bay)
One of the last of the Nomadic communities to stop wandering it was "settled" when missionaries arrived and built a Catholic mission. In the late 1950's the nomadic congregation became a stationary community on the east shore of the Bay.

(The same mission is seen behind the young paddler in the top photo and the motor boat above.)

Victoria returned early from the Arctic the next season, unable to speak she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died in May 2000 at the age of 55.

I returned from that first trip committed to the concept of "passing in on" and have been teaching ever since.

In 2002 Victoria's daughter Teresa and I returned to Kugaaruk, to continue passing it on. We watched and paddled alongside as the community developed an Inuit owned and operated Sea Kayak tour of the area.


Her influence also started a traditional kayak building program in the community and Vince, "old Martha's" son-in-law was one of the first to paddle his traditional craft on the water that same evening.

Later I got to paddle the long narrow boat myself.


In 2002 Michael, a Pelly Bay hunter and guide used an ancient craft preserved in resin to gather Arctic Char for the camp supper.


Phil and grounded Ice Floe 2002

While she was there Victoria wanted to make sure every Inuit child in Kugaaruk actually paddled a kayak, and not just see photographs in the school. Making sure that happened on our watch, I found the pint-sized paddler patiently waiting his turn.

VIctoria "re-acquainted" the Inuit of Pelly Bay with their ancestral craft and in the process started me on the path of "acquainting" paddlers all over the country with the kayak and it's double blade paddle.

I never forget that every skill I teach today originated with the arctic hunters.

Pass it On.


**(Victoria Jason's award winning journal "Kabloona In the Yellow Kayak" still sells in Canadian bookstores)**
**See also, "Return of the Kayak", Canadian Geographic January/February 1999**

-30-

Off and Bloggin......

Well, after years of gazing I've succumbed to posting a blog of my own.

This is rather out of character of me.


I am usually the first to discredit the "new media", preferring a good book or manual to the flickering screen.

In surrendering however, I am realizing this to be a great source for immediate gratification, mine in "getting it out of my system", or just sharing experiences on and off the water, yours in telling me exactly what you think (should you care to respond).

Some "like" links are posted on the side here, the personal journals of Alison Dyer, Freda Hoffmeister and Stan MacKenzie are my blogger inspiration.

Paddling has taken me to places and people I'd never have had the pleasure of meeting and seeing, those are the experiences I hope to share here along with the odd rant about.....well.... whatever.....perhaps even this "new media".

Thanks for looking!