Subscribe now If you are reading this on April 22nd, then my long awaited DAY 214 is in progress. I’m probably paddling, running, or maybe I’m still driving to the starting point, Liverpool IL. Google Maps is saying it is 455 miles. A 6 hour and 50 minute drive. As in the past trips I will drive in the early hours of the morning to arrive around 8:00 a.m. CDT. By the time I get a long run in, Kate hopefully will have also arrived. We’ll try to launch around 10:00 a.m. CDT. If I get tired during the drive I will stop for a nap. If so, it might put us beyond on a ten o’clock launch. Thus far ..read more

Subscribe now THE HIATUS ENDS THIS MONTH. On April 22nd Kate and I will be continuing the Statue <> Arch Expedition. It is a four day paddle. Anyone is welcome to join us. If interested leave a message in the comments section at the end of the post. Most of the time the kayak moves you, sometimes you have to move the kayak. I wish it never was the case but it is necessary at times. At times you obey the law, you must do it, other times, when you do it you are breaking the law. I’m talking about portaging. Back in 2012 in order to finish runyaking from Flint River to Niagara Falls I ha ..read more

Of the 213 runyaking expedition DAYs since 2009 I’ve written a fair amount about the worst days, capsizing, wading in muck, and such. I’ve relived them more times than I want. Within all those memorable DAYs, which now stretch from New York City and Liverpool (IL), I can say DAYs 58 through 94 were the easiest stretch. Reflecting back, that stretch seemed almost dreamy. Stretches? In a journey that spans 15 years, there’s a need to compartmentalize. I see it as 6 different phases. Flint River headwaters to Niagara Falls (2009-2012) Erie Canal (2013-2015 Hudson River (2015-2017) Flint ..read more

Subscribe now Nearly every year in February for well over a decade Hope and I have traveled up to Michigan’s largest inland lake, Houghton. We are invited by the Michigan chapter of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. WOODEN CANOE! Hell, I’ve never owned any sort of canoe. They must have thought they could convert me. We always stay at Windemere Lodge which is over a hundred years old and it looks its age although very well kept. I really love how the floor creeks wherever you walk. What truly gives away the age of the lodge is the built-in iceboxes, which in its day, before refrigerators ..read more

Subscribe now I can’t dwell too long on thoughts about the day I must give up kayaking. Too sad, don’t want to go there. Will I be in my eighties, nineties? Hard to imagine kayaking in my nineties, but if you know me, you can’t rule it out. On the other hand, one never knows, this year could it the end. Whenever the paddle is pried from my hands, I’ll take the view, “I had one hellava ride.” Yet I do lament that I started kayaking so late. I was 48 the first time I sat in a kayak. It was back in 1999. My friend, Wads and I drove up to Grayling to paddle the AuSable. Had we rented a canoe we’d ..read more

Subscribe now What is the worst thing about kayaking? Capsizing, at least for me it is. With over 3,000 miles kayaked I’ve only performed the stunt maybe a dozen times. But, I also need to include many times I didn’t sink. That would be times when adrenaline was pumping while taking in water, battling waves, thinking I was going into the brink. Enough times that I have bad dreams of being in whitecaps. Now, even when I’m not in a kayak and see whitecaps, or fast moving river water, I shake my head and say, MAN, I’m glad I’m not out there. I know less adventurous people than myself who’ve enjoy ..read more

Subscribe now I must enjoy journaling. I’ve been doing it twenty years now. In my youth I did very little writing and avoided it whenever possible. Getting an E on my first college writing assignment when 18 is one of the reasons I gave up on college in the first two weeks. It would be almost twenty years before I’d go back and try to get the degree I gave up on so quickly. The dread of writing papers had something to do with that. Being a college drop out kept nagging at me, so I signed up as a part-time student at University of Michigan-Flint in the winter semester of 1988. Not until the fal ..read more

Subscribe now January 15, 2024 After my last post I got a email from a wise friend. He was wondering whether Swiftee may be experiencing any lack of seaworthiness, due to age and the craft’s polyethylene exposure to UV light. He told me it was the case of a canoe he once paddled with his wife. While paddling the stern broke completely off. He told me it might be worthwhile to give Swiftee a physical this winter.  Of course my mind began envisioning terrifying scenarios. Not just myself but what he and his wife actually must have went through. I will not take his suggestion light ..read more

Subscribe now January 1, 2024 Happy New Year’s Day. It should be if you are reading this on the day published. It’s now been over nine weeks since my last runyak DAY. Swiftee is tucked away until spring. I have no plans of putting him in the water over the winter. I have paddled in frigid weather many times. But, I’ve concluded it’s not for me. It’s just not that much fun. Not to mention the added danger. The only way it could be fun is if I invested money in the proper clothing. I suppose that would be labeled winter recreational kayaking. I don’t consider what I do as ordinary recreation. Gi ..read more

Subscribe now October 25, 2023 I woke up and left our overnight camp, Copperas Creek Landing before Kate. I needed coffee to start my day, whereas she didn’t, she never took up the habit. There was a coffee shop 10 mile away in Canton IL. When on the road Starbucks is my, go to, but the nearest one was over 20 miles away. I’m not saying Starbucks my favorite but it’s good and it is quality controlled, it taste the same at every location. You take your chances walking into a strange coffee shop. I had to do today, because of time and distance. I arrived at Black Maple Coffee before they open ..read more