Friday, July 25, 2008

KaaaaYAAKER!!!!!!!

.....the familiar greeting from Kent came across my cell phone...."Did I want to go for a trip down the Dupe?" Of course the answer is always "yes", its just a matter of previous plans and if all the "honeydos" have been completed. With a recent rain the river was up and we put in at old reliable...Community Park. Pat had borrowed my solo 'yak for a little family trip so it was back to the good'ole times....Dan and Kent cuddled up in the tandem. You know the phrase, "It's better on top"? Well I have always prescribed to the "It's better in the back" when it comes to tandem kayaking but Kent begged to be the captain and we reversed roles. At least we didn't have to experience the loneliness of a masturyak. Check out my entry in the Urban Dictionary. Maybe it will make it to Webster's sometime.

The rapids were good and as always we had a good time. We did explore back into the Seven Bridges lakes prior to our takeout at the condos.
The previous week Lisa and I did this same route and she seemed to really enjoy it. Will she become an outdoors women after all? Probably not but I love her just the same. We need to get the ladies out again for a couple's trip.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Months 31 and 32 in the books












The first weekend in June Dan participated in a river sweep in Community Park. Quite a good crowd showed up and we took a lot of crap out of the river. Not only did it get month 31 completed it was a nice community service project.
In Mid June we made our annual trip to Door County. Jim M., Pat, Tom and Dan took an extended trip around Green Bay. At one point we saw numerous large carp swimming in the shallows. Jim's shorts tightened as he gazed into the glistening water and whispered slowly of his desire to plunge an arrow deep into the side of one of God's creatures.
Double click on the 2nd picture of a native tepee built by the ancient tribe of Nicolet warriors. I am not sure why Pat is on his knees in front of Jim but Jim sure seems interested in what (or who) is going down!! Maybe he was still thinking of the Pirate fantasy / lovegame he had just told us about.

On July 5th (month 32) we had our largest group of kayaks venturing down the Duper as well as the 1st ever 4 brothers trip. Larry, Ben, Pat, Jim M. and Dan were in solo yaks and Tom and Joe were in the tandem. That's 6 kayaks and 7 people. Speaking of tightening shorts, everyone speculated I was in heaven with such a large group. The water level was very low but we only got stuck a few times. Some wildlife highlights for the newbies were a beaver/gopher swimming on the side of the river, multiple fish sitings and a large deer walking in the river about 75 yards ahead of us.
A closer inspection of picture 3 and you may notice that Ben is in the Duper not on the Duper. A little miscalculation under a fallen tree and over he went. Once back in the boat Ben declared: "That's the first time I have ever been dumped out of anything". Not missing a beat, Uncle Tom questioned his nephew: "How'd that work out for you?". This gave us all a good chuckle. The last 2 pictures are of the group (less the author/ photographer). It was a good trip boys.