Ok, that's the next post in a few days (or tomorrow) lets just back pedal a few weeks…

 
I got my marks back – I passed everything with a low of 66 and high of 84 in 2 subjects. So I’m happy with that.

My computer is still dead and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to fix it – so maybe it’s not worth bringing it back home and thus I’m stuck with no way to download photo’s, contact people etc…… all of the things that you become to depend on a laptop to be able to do while your travelling.

We have been slowly getting everything together for the girl’s trans Canadian bike ride that they leave for on Tuesday next week, although at the moment Lisa hates her shoes, bike, clothes, and gloves. So I’m not sure what she’s going to do about all that, but seeing as she doesn’t have any money to get new gear… I suppose she’ll have to start liking it cause I’d hate to think that every day for the next 3 months that she wakes up doesn’t want to get up and keep riding.

Last weekend was the May long weekend… (not that I, out of school and unemployed noticed.) Myself along with 4 other blokes got up super early and drove the 2 hours to Rossport on the Lake Superior north shore. By 9 we were geared up with sea kayaks, pogies (most awesome things EVER) PFD’s wetsuits and food for at least 3 days. The morning was stunning and we thought it was going to be a great time, but – in the time it took to pack the boats and get launched the wind had picked up, and a large front looked like it was about to set in. (it was then, when “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” started to go through by head that I should have started to walk home).

And so we set off. Now, for all of you back home, Lake Superior I’m lead to believe is the largest body of fresh water in north America, its also smack bang in the middle of the continent and if it wasn’t for the vast size of the jolly thing central Canada would have a the climate and environment of the Siberian tundra. All the same, when the shores have been frozen in several feet of ice for the past 5 months – its really REALLY cold….. as in – you go in the drink and you panic you’ll have about 5-10 min before you have severe hyperthermia. It’s really an inland sea and as such has about as much care for you as bass straight had for the 98 Sydney to Hobart yachtsmen. (and on the second day out I came across that indifference)

We rounded the first island and started to head out towards Wilson Island where we’d thought of camping, our guide (and housemate) Zack had arranged the weekend for us, had worked as guiding around the Rossport islands the previous year and “knows the area” (HA!) I feel that on a body of water this dangerous not only should you know the water but the weather, the indicators and what to do when it gets nasty (and when you have first tine sea kayakers like myself and rob)

To cut the narrative down – across the first crossing, round the island, down the channel, wind to out backs, round the point – big crossing (about 1000m) go – wind’s picking up from the right, big open water to the left, get across. More wind – turn into the wind and go along the side of Wilson island, front comes in, 3ft rollers with wind waves on top of that, rain, fast, ice cold and stinging my face and hands. Hmmm… ice cap still on that point – round the point, nearly spill, (3 times) get into camp – Oh! Sweet sweet sheltered bay with solid ground beneath my feet – I have not been that scared in a LONG time.

Camp was fantastic… the others said that there were bears out on the island…. But I didn’t see any. I took a stack of photo’s messing around with settings etc and having  a good O’l time. 

The next day I got up around 7 – it was raining and windy so I went back to bed.

10:00 up again, its still windy, and really cold – no rain.
11:00 breakfast and planning our attack (we had to be home tonight)
12:00 on the water – I’d have been happy to just go home because of the wind and the white caps out, but Zack and Aaron wanted to go right out to Kabanosh (KAb-An-Osh) Island to have a look see. (that’s right out on the outer north shore…

We  paddle, we sail, we avoid capsizing and we make land on the island.
do a few surveys for camp sites and have a look at these terraced beaches (they were really weird. Back to the boats, (cross country – if you’ve never seen 5 guys on a remote island in wet suites bashing through pine trees and under growth – it really is a sight!)
3:00 lunch…
big crossing back to Wilson island (behind island, forward island right open water for 100’s of km till you hit the states, left wind and waves at about 25 knots…. Lots of white caps. Not cool!)

Around rear end of the island into steam boat channel (calm, nice paddeling)
out of the channel and into the worst wind and waves yet. 4 ft waves, wind gusting so that you’re drifting backwards even as every ounce of you is aching from trying to paddle forwards…. Sacry scary scary!

There was one point that I looked at this rock, did 100 strokes as hard as I could and the rock was in front of me! AGH!!

So, the crossing back to channel island was the worst – its only about 600 meters but the wind and the waves and being exhausted (not to say that the group was a long strung out line and if I did come off I’d die!) it took me about an hour to do it, and I went through an entire range of emotions – wanting to give up, thinking about food, thirst, nearly crying, being sore, getting over being sore and thinking about the parts of my body that weren’t sore or cold…. And being really really angry because it was all taking forever. I have not been in a situation where during an outdoor recreation trip I wished that I was anywhere but there.

I did make it, and I made the last 3 crossings and I’ve just got 2 more stories to tell about the weekend.

The first is from the 2^nd last crossing. It was a big one, I think it’s the biggest one that we did and it was beside open water for miles back to the mainland so the water had lots of time to get going -  the sun was setting (about 9:30) and we’d been going flat out since 3:30 when we’d had lunch. There was a set of 5ish foot waves that came through – I say this because when I was between them I couldn’t see out but what I did see was awesome, the waves’ top was being blown off from the wind and hitting me in the face, and as the wave got right up the golden sunlight was shining through creating this black/blue/gold landscape that I’d ride down the back of, get hit in the face by the little drops of gold that flew off the wave crest before the kayak dove into the front of the next wave and I had a whole heap of cold water land on my for deck and skirt. I nearly lost it at one time when I wad distracted by the beauty of it all.

The second was right at the end of the trip when we were in the Rossport harbour, we’d just come around the last point and could see the big red fog light on the end of the pier (as well as the town ship and house lights) it was about 10:30 pm and the sun had been down for an hour, the wind – had both dropped off after sunset and the face that we were now behind a few smaller islands close to the mainland so it was basically flat. To the east there was a huge storm cloud group that had been blowing over us for the past 2 days and it was totally black. So, its dark, the water is black and we’re paddling across this black flat water following this big red light. Through these clouds to the east the full moon popped its head and lit up the entire bay. When this happened I looked around and it was awesome. I was between Rob and the moon and when he turned around and said something along the lines of “wow, your silhouette against the water in the moonlight, the islands and the storm… wow!” So around 11:45 when we had been going flat out since 3:30 that afternoon, totally exhausted and slightly worried about our families back home who were expecting phone calls around 8 sitting in our kayaks lit up by the full moon’s light on Lake Superior we let off a huge howl, only to be answered by the other’s somewhere out in the dark a few hundred meters behind us.

Those of you, who do know, know, and for those of you who don’t I’ll just say this:

As I said, I leave Thunder Bay and Lisa in less than a week and that’s going to suck big time… especially seeing as we just got engaged last month and I won’t see her for a minimum of 7 months – but that is another story for another entry.

Things that I’m thankful for:

Lisa. (of coarse!)
all the fantastic people here in T’bay!
Kat’s notes on Facebook
Meagan N. (the Yank) and her occasional emails.
long calls home
planning the next few years of our lives
Sunshine after a day of rain
my camera.
everyone coming back from that paddle trip alive and well.

Till next time,
Sven.