Kayaking Crow Lake.

The whole damn thing.  It was planned for the last week of July, when Chris and I are both off and plan to be at the cottage most of the time.

Here's a map that will probably be of little use to you.

See the little yellow dot at the top?  We're a little to the right of that.  So I'm aiming to follow the coast until, well, I get back to my starting point.

Just something I want to do.  You know, the "because it's there" feeling.  Same reason I climbed the CN Tower years ago.  Just seemed like a neat physical challenge (confession: It's easier than it sounds).  Plus it's motivation to stay in some sort of shape, other than pear-shaped.

Quick aside about the CN Tower climb; you'd be shocked at how often, when I told people I was climbing the CN Tower, I'd be asked "From inside?".  Of course from inside, for Christ's sake.  I'm not friggin' Spider-Man!

Anyway...

Following my junk-shrinking (hey, that's not permanent, is it?) dive from earlier that morning, I got in my kayak for a shortened version of my planned trek.  It was an opportunity to learn from several mistakes.

I went past Gull Rock (remember that from an earlier post?  Anal probes!) to an island called Bertrim...Island.  Lovely place, with ridiculously clear water near the shore.  Blow this picture up.

Here's what I did wrong, and will fix.

1) I didn't wear my bad ass Mechanix gloves because I'd left them at home.  I blistered at the thumb webbing on both hands.  Insert frog joke here.  I'm not doing this unless the gloves are available.

2) I wore my bathing suit.  What blows about that is that you only burn in the inside of your legs.  Hurts like hell.  Long pants on the big trip.  I wonder if I'd look good in that Lululemon stuff?

Owie-owie-owie!

3) You take on water from the drips off your paddle.  But get this math: the further you go, the more water you take on.  I'm bringing a small towel or something so that I can wring some of it out.

4) A lunch wouldn't kill me.  A tofurkey sandwich, on dill mustard, would be lovely, perhaps with a refreshing iced tea...

5) Leave early.  I left for this trial run at around 10:20 but was still on the water at high noon.  By then, it was hotter than bacon fat out there.  At some point, I think vultures were circling, just waiting for me to die. Jerks.  Besides, the water tends to be calmer earlier, therefore easier to navigate.  I like those nautical terms.

That's about it. 

Bertrim Island is further than it looks, and I managed it OK, but that also underscored just how long my little excursion actually is.  So maybe our week off at the end of August is a better target time.  Whatever.  Sooner or later, I'm doin' it.