Sea Kayaking

Sunday morning, we got up and broke camp, excited to hit the high seas in a vessel power by our own strength.  This was the most anticipated part of the trip for me (Arthur).  Changing modes of transportation from feet to kayak was reason enough for excitement, but the coast of Superior looked amazing from the top, I was excited to see what they looked like from the side.

We arrived at our tour's meeting spot and set about gearing up.  They had us try on wet suits for against the possibility of cold seas, which are every bit as tight as they look, but my high spirits were not to be deterred.  The experience about to be had was worth any slight inconvenience as this, and so with wet suit, PFD (personal flotation device, its what all the cool kids are calling their life jackets these days), and water, we loaded into the tour van and headed towards our launch point.

A note of clarification here: you apparently cannot just rent a sea kayak; if you have no experience, you have to go as part of a tour.  This really didn't bother us at all; if someone wants to come along and make sure we don't do anything stupid due to inexperience, that works out just fine.  So far we've had great luck on vacation groups.  I guess the sort of adventures we go on helps to select for the coolest type of people, and this trend held up on this trip.

We arrived on the beach and prepared to head out after a brief tutorial on how to use the equipment.  Alex and I shared a tandem kayak, and the original plan was for me to take the rear seat and be responsible to control the kayak rudder.  We soon discovered that the foot pedals used to operate the rudder could not be set far enough from the seat for my exceptionally long legs, so my competent and wonderful wife had to take over.

We set out, and while we were having a lot of fun, we were struggling quite a bit with steering.  At one point it look more like we were headed out to the islands than trying to hug the coast, but with some help from the guides, we eventually got squared away.

We moved along 3.5 miles of some amazing sights.  Eons of waves battering the coast has carved out a solid rock wall whose contours are a sight to behold.  The water is unbelievable clear; visibility is said to be good for 40 feet down, but I didn't test that idea.  All I can say for sure is rocks that looked like they were only a few feet down couldn't be touched by paddle.

There were many spots where the water had carved caves and tunnels into the coast, and we got to go through a number of them.  One such cave, called the "Cathedral" for its vaulted walls, was very aptly named, but all of these formations truly acted as temples, reminding us that all the earth belonged to a God of beauty and awe.

Paddling was pretty easy for us, if we really wanted to pick up speed, we could quickly move from the back to the front of the pack.  There were a lot of times where we just wanted to move slowly, and during those times Alex provided the lion's share of the power.

We pulled off and had lunch, provided by the guides.  It was all good, but what we both remember most is the smoked white fish.  I've had smoked fish twice now, and both times are spectacular memories, this probably warrants further investigation.

In any case, after lunch, we head back to our launch point to load up again.  By this time Alex had gotten really good at steering, and we enjoyed steering really close to the coast and trying to keep up with the lead guide, who would get well out ahead and wait for the group to catch up.  The sights were still beautiful, and the periods spent waiting were not lost in the quiet contemplation of such majesty.

Alas, we reached the launch point and loaded up.  I had a cool talk with a water conservationist with the Minnesota department of public resources, and it was interesting getting his take on the current and potential future state of agriculture (like I said, really cool people).  After saying goodbye to our group, we did a short drive around beautiful Bayfield, and headed on to Saint Paul.

The drive there was pretty amazing in its own right.  The land we went through was so green, and the little towns we passed was like something out of a Rockwell painting.  Watch the opening scene from Hoosiers, and imagine it more green; that's what is was like.  With the story of the 1936 Olympic rowing team playing in the background, the part of our vacation was on par with much of the hiking we so carefully planned for.

We arrived at our hotel pretty late, but showered up and and grabbed a quick dinner at Jimmy John's.  It was a wonderful day, and we were ending it in a real bed; pure bliss.  Omnia Vincit Amour.