Don't hold your bathing suit too close to the fire

At the last minute I was invited to join a family on their five-day kayaking trip to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Lake Superior. They asked me to come along to basically be a safety boat, perhaps do some instructing as well. I was thrilled at the opportunity and quickly packed my stuff, ran last minute errands, rearranged some scheduling and 36 hours later I riding in the backseat of a car for the 6 hour drive up north.

The trip was organized by a couple who invited other people from both sides of their family and resulted in seven people, age 22 and up. They started planning months ago and hired me to teach some of them some rescues a few days before they were to leave. Towards the end of the lesson one of them commented, "wow, Amy this has been great. I wish you could go with us." i smiled and half jokingly said, "well I'd go if you'd pay me." Little did I know what that comment would lead to!

The trip was great. We had nearly perfect weather, calm seas, and really they didn't need me at all, which was exactly what some of them thought from the get-go, but others were more hesitant about the trip and felt better with someone more experienced tagging along. However, it was my first trip to the Apostles and my first trip in my new P & H Vela sea kayak and even before this trip I had another trip to the Apostles planned for only a few days after we returned. nearly two weeks in the Apostles in one month! So exciting.

me standing in front of my new boat

Anyway, the trip started with all of them taking a 3-hour lesson on Lake Superior that was required for them to rent their boats from Living Adventure. I stayed on shore and packed and learned how small the Vela boat really is (only 15'8"). I also got to talk with Gail and Grant, the Living Adventure owners who have a stellar reputation in the WI paddling community. They are great folks and hopefully our paths will cross again.

The first day we paddled one mile to Basswood Island, a distance that took about 20 minutes. For most kayakers a paddling speed is very similar to a walking pace, about 3 miles/hour. The short paddle enabled us to take our time packing and ease into the trip slowly. It was a nice beginning.

Days 2 and 3 were spent on Oak Island group Site B. Oak is a gorgeous island and well maintained by a volunteer ranger.

Sunset from the dock on Oak Island

On day 3 four of us paddled to Hole in the Wall and back. We would have gone all the way around the island, but we didn't have enough food with us. we were just planning to go out and play in the boats for 30 minutes and ended up deciding to paddle to Hole in the Wall, 5 miles each way, so we weren't prepared for lunch. It was a lovely paddle and one of the highlights of the trip for me. I love the rocky sandstone formations of Lake Superior.

Carrie and Ellen paddling near Hole in the Wall on Oak Island
(even though it looks tropical the water is 50 degrees!)

At the end of the day I was practicing eskimo bow rescues with a couple folks and got pretty cold, so that night decided to try to dry my bathing suit over the campfire so I didn't have to put on a wet one in the morning. Everyone else had been doing this all week. Justin was our fire tender and was happy to hold my bathing suit for me with his stick (that he carried with him all week on his kayak). However, at one point he got up to do something else and I figured I'd take over for a bit since it was my bathing suit and he didn't need to do all the work for me. the bathing suit was steaming as i held it over the hot fire. I kept checking to make sure it wasn't catching on fire. well, I should have known with nylon that it wold melt before it would ignite and sure enough it did - right in the center a 1" x 2" section melted! Oh well, at least it didn't create a hole!

Justin holding my bathing suit (before it melted)

After Oak we had a 10 mile paddle to Sand Island and stopped on both Raspberry and York Island. As we approached Sand the waves were picking up so we couldn't go in the sea caves, but the next morning it was like glass so I got up and headed out to the caves with two others before breakfast. The sea caves were another highlight for me and made me even more excited to return the next week.

paddling through the sea caves

I learned a ton during this trip and was very excited to apply some of that knowledge the following week for my vacation trip to the Apostles. See the next post for photos of that trip.