After my late November camp trip last year (see Post 20 of 2017), I intentionally decided to stop posting most of my kayak trips. The reason: Since I have so few readers of this blog, and since I was infrequently paddling in NEW places, I figured that I just didn't need to keep posting pictures and blogging about the same old, same old, and people just didn't need to keep reading about the same old, same old... and so I decided I would only add entries if I paddled someplace new... or if I did a paddle in a place that I had paddled before but something unique happened that I felt I wanted to share.
Well, I have been paddling in 2018, although not as much as some of my previous years; it seems we have had a lot of windy weekends again this year, and a lot of my regular paddling buddies have been spending more and more time on their fatbikes... I have a fatbike as well, and do enjoy it, but I have taken to it much less than the others, meaning I have not gone OCD with that activity like I did when I took up kayaking...
My first kayak paddle this year was on Jan 20, and my last paddle to date was September 9... But I've had my butt in my kayaks thirty times between those dates. That's actually pretty much the same as last year, but about ten times less than 2016, for the same period of time... Since my last paddle in September, I was on vacation for a month, then rolled my ankle on a hike the third week of October (limped around on it for nearly three weeks), and have had one of those hanger-on cold/flu's. So I've been away from my outdoor pursuits for a while...
Between my paddling activity, from January 1 to September 2, I have been on my fatbike twenty-seven times... To put that into perspective, in the month of January, one of my kayak/fatbike buddies nearly rode his bike that many times just during the month of January!!! I did do another short ride on my fatbike a few days ago to see how my ankle felt... still a bit of discomfort, and pain when pushing harder like on an up-grade... so still gonna take a little more time to heal. From January 11 to October 21, I have spent forty-five days hiking (as well as an additional eight times doing quasi-hikes while I was away on vacation). I've also managed to fit in sixteen camping trips between January 13 and October 21; these have been a combination of hiking (8), paddling(3), biking (1), and car (4) camping trips... I can add one more if I count driving out to my buddy's and sleeping in his camper...
My buddy Shane issued a challenge earlier this year... I call it the 3-3-100 Challenge. Over three consecutive days, in any order, do one activity per day - hike, bike, paddle - so that the total distance covered equals at least 100 km. He set minimums for each activity.. 50 km on the fatbike, 30 km in the kayak, and 20 km hiking. I decided to take on his challenge at the end of June. On Day 1 I biked 51.4 km, Day 2 I hiked 26.6 km, and Day 3 I paddled 32.3 km. I reported my challenge results to Shane and our other buddies in hopes to motivate others to do the challenge... but nobody else did - not even Shane! It's not a competition of time, but rather a challenge to get active, but I am still waiting to get some type of reward as the only one to actually take on Shane's challenge in 2018!!! Of course, we still have time left in the year for others to add their names to the list of 2018 participants.
So I have been very busy this year...
Now getting back on topic of kayaking... In July, four of us did an overnight trip from Point Lance to St. Brides. This is the only place this year that I have paddled that was new for me! I wrote up a blog entry and was going to post it, but our local kayaking magazine (Ebb and Flow) put out a call for articles and I decided to submit it to them instead of posting it right away. I have been waiting for this falls magazine to come out, and then I will post the article on my blog so that anyone who does not receive our publication will be able to read about the little adventure... Anyway, here's a pic from that trip...
As soon as the Ebb and Flow comes out I will post my article along with some pics....
