Walk North until your hat floats

The GLSKS is now a week over and I have gotten back to some normality in my life. Well, at least until my next group of trips. Of a Thursday morning, there is nothing I like better than to reflect on a week or two well spent and avoid doing the inevitable yard work that piles up while I am gone. Here goes nothing!

I started off last Thursday morning getting some old and new friends on the water. Justine Curgenven was up for the symposium and wanted to film something for use in her newest epic, "This is the Sea 4". Honestly, she has made enough of these talkies that I can't keep track of which one she's on! With all of the hoopla preceding the GLSKS it was a bit of a crunch for getting her a boat the day before. Enter; P&H! I met her and the team in Munising, MI and we made our way to Miner's Beach on the Western edge of the Pictured Rocks National Shoreline. Now, it's been a long, long time since my days of acting and I felt like a real film crew. We had 3 vehicles, 25 kayaks of all shapes and sizes, 40 Werner Paddles, and enough kit to send a unit of Navy Seals to invade a Caribbean island...all for 5 paddlers and a camera! And Europeans call us Americans excessive!

The paddlers; Justine, Barry (Justine's significant other), Damon and Sara Smith (Yes, the beautiful people), and Danny Mongno of Werner Paddles (Oh, and a P&H and Impex Pro Paddler). The boats; a P&H Cetus, 2 P&H Capella 161's, a P&H Sirius, and a Valley Nordkapp.

When looking at the laundry list of competent paddlers and given it turned out to be a 16 mile paddle, one would ask what could possibly go bad? Two words; BLACK FLIES! For those of you not from the Midwest, let me explain the dreaded black fly experience. These tiny demons from Hell mask themselves as normal flies. If you look closely you can see their horns and bifurcated tales. They are more tenacious than mosquitos...more akin to telemarketers in the late 90's. Oh, and they bite! Not sting, they bite! And if you don't kill them they just assume you are dead and begin the mastication process! And there are 2 billion of them per inch along lake Superior. Have I mentioned that they bite? Hard? Little villains!

After dropping them off and getting the crew on the water, I had to head into Grand Marais to teach so no black fly and Pictured Rocks for me. Always a bridesmaid...

And that, my friends, is the way the all became the Brady Bunch!