I just got an email from Karl Wilson saying that I was one of the winners in the Big Water 08 contest. I won a subscription to Superior Outdoors magazine!!! The contest had 5 magazine subscriptions and 4 stainless steel water bottles form Wilderness Supply Co to give away.

Karl & David Mcgratten are heading out first thing in the morning on their Big Water 2008 expedition around the coast of Lake Superior.

Read more about their journey here: www.bigwater08.com

Back in the game! (well, sorta)

I just got back from Grand Marais with my new (but second-hand) poly Necky Chatham 17 . I wasn’t planning on getting another kayak this year but was checking out the Superior Coastal Sports website and saw this one listed for a good price. I’ve always liked the Chatham so decided if I could get a good price for mine, I’d buy it. I contacted the owner to make sure it was still available, put my Cape Horn up for sale and had a buyer next day.

The Chatham is a little more scratched up than the Cape Horn and the day hatch cover will need to be replaced soon but overall, it’s in really good shape. It’s also four years newer than my Cape Horn. Another selling point for me was that the asking price was less than mine, so it really only cost me the difference from the $120 I had to pay for taxes (GST & PST). Isn’t it great that the Canadian Government charges full tax on used items when they’re brought back across the border? At least the Canadian and U.S. dollar are on par with each other these days so I didn’t have to worry about losing out from the exchange rate. I guess I should also factor in the cost of gas and travel time but Grand Marais is a nice town and a fairly short drive so I’m happy to go there whenever I can.

We got to Grand Marais fairly early and, because of the time difference, we had a couple hours to kill so we decided to do some shopping and go for lunch before picking up the kayak. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the shopping details. After a couple shops, we went to the Gun Flint Tavern for lunch. Neither of us had ever been there before but it always looked pretty busy when passing through town before and I heard they have a good selection of beer on tap so it was a no-brainer. I’ve never heard anything about their food but the first thing I noticed when I walked in was that they had Summit and Blue Moon on tap so I wasn’t too concerned about the food (it turned out to be really good anyway). I’m not a mathematician but know that good food + good beer = a return visit sometime soon. After lunch and a couple pints of Summit Extra Pale, it was time to head to Superior Coastal to do some more shopping and to get the kayak (a former employee was selling it). We chatted with the owner for a bit, bought a few things, loaded up the kayak and headed on our way back home.

Mt Josephine rest stop. Overlooking Lake Superior

It was a beautiful day, actually, I think it was the first really nice day we’ve had this summer so it was difficult being stuck in the car and driving along the coast of the largest lake in the world with a new kayak strapped to the roof. I was originally hoping to get home early so I could go for a paddle the same night but…. I sprained my wrist a couple weeks ago and every time I thought it was getting better, I would go paddling and it ended getting worse. Even though I really wanted to paddle it today, I held back in hopes of letting my wrist finally heal properly. It’s going to be a tough couple of days staring at it sitting on the grass but now that I have a new paddle leash AKA camera leash, I’ll take a bunch of pics when I actually get to go paddling.

I also got a Snap Dragon Sea Tour EZ spray skirt.

Other than length, the Chatham 17 and Cape Horn 17 are two completely different boats so once I’m able to get out paddling again, I’ll post a comparison of the two. One thing is for sure, I’m going to miss all the storage space that the Cape Horn has.

It’s official. I no longer own a kayak.

The good news is that Thunder Bay has one more paddler to add to the local kayaking population and hopefully, the Thunder Bay Sea Kayak Club will also get a new member.

I’m picking up my Necky Chatham 17 on Saturday and can’t wait to go paddling!