Gear Lust on Georgian Bay
(GLSKA Instructional Weekend, Franklin Island, June 14-16 2002)

I learned a lot this weekend. Of course, that was the purpose of the weekend - as advertised, Ron was going to work on bracing and rescue skills with a group of Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Association (GLSKA) non-wimps who defied the terrible weather forecast (heavy showers interspersed with thunderstorms and torrential downpours with some gale force winds thrown in for fun, or something like that). But I learned much more than that (including that you can so pronounce an acronym with almost no vowels, it's "Gliss-kah").
I learned, for example, that I have a serious case of gear lust. I already knew that my credit card starts to perspire if we so much as venture onto King Street in Toronto - but I had no idea how serious this is getting. When I got to the island (I paddled over with Nancy and Ron and Hugh), I spied Nancy's handy-dandy deck bag (the perfect spot for snacks!), and I mentally added it to my "I want" list.
We paddled over in fairy sunny conditions. While we were setting up our tents, though, it started looking less and less sunny. The forecast had a chance of being right, so I proudly pulled out my el cheapo Canadian Tire blue poly tarp to put up so that a spot of rock would be dry enough to sit and drink tea. Ron took one look at what I was doing and said something along the lines of "I have a real tarp". Out came something that made my efforts look like putting a hankie on my head when somebody else has a golf umbrella. So my list included "new tarp". This was reinforced when tarp city started to grow - observe the addition of Peter's spiffy Chlorophylle tarp in the picture at right.

I also learned that gliss-kah-yakers are a hardy bunch - Peter paddled over in the nastiest conditions of the whole weekend - by himself. Dave and then Jerry weren't far behind, either. And while Ron, Jerry, Hugh and I did a little bit of paddling (here is where I did some actual kayak-related learning, by the way), Sam showed up, and later Lee and Kasia and John - all of them undaunted by the rain.

I learned that, given a bunch of interesting and fun people, squatting under a tarp on a windswept island in Georgian Bay can be the best night of the week so far (this may or may not be related to me learning that Upper Canada can be purchased in cans).
Of course, when you get a bunch of seasoned campers like this together under a tarp or three, you've created an ideal climate for fermenting gear lust. I lusted after Sam's self-cleaning pots, Jerry's pop-up chair and table, Peter's lightning-fast stove, and pants so waterproof that Ron can filter water into a bottle with a massive hole and not notice the puddle in his lap.
All the lusting must have tired me out, because I slept well that night (or maybe it was the lulling of more and more rain). And in the morning - while I was goofing off with my camera - I saw the sun touch the top of the clouds, and developed hope that we would indeed defy the weather forecast.
After breakfast (I forget whose gear I lusted after then, but I'm sure I was extending my list further and further...), we accomplished the purpose of the outing - we voluntarily dumped our boats and took a dip in Georgian Bay. There were even a couple of involuntary dumps due to diligent bracing practice. Yes, I'm back to learning stuff now.
Post-learning, we took a short paddle through some of the interior channels of Franklin Island. Lee, Kasia and Sam took a shortcut which must have been very strenuous, given the nap that was required to recover from it...
Torrential rains or whatever the weatherman says, whatever. Look west - blue sky and bright sunshine. But then again, look east, and you see some doozy thunderclouds building. I had already learned that there were no wimps there, but just to reinforce the point, a paddle to the Snake Islands was offered up as an afternoon diversion.
So, against a backdrop of thunderclouds, we paddled out. This is where I learned many things, including that wind out of the east means bad weather and out of the west good weather.
I also learned that snacks in the deck bungees go and swim off on their own while you are fantasizing about all the gear you will buy someday. And then Ron paddled up to me and offered to let my try his paddle. Gear Lust reached deafening heights here - the entire list has been forgotten, or at least bumped, since a new paddle is now at the very top. Using Ron's paddle was like driving a brand-spanking new GTI after years of bumping around in an aging air-cooled beetle - maybe not as much "character", but in some cases "character" just means "time to replace".
The Snakes, by the way, were beautiful, and the paddle over and back (just over 4 km each way) was fun (this is where I learned that Sam's normal cruising speed is 7 km/hr and mine is 6 km/hr - previous gear lust has resulted in my GPS).
We enjoyed a beautiful evening including a campfire. Sometime before sunset I took a walk (and learned that the bugs are the size of moose on the lee side of the island. Small moose, but definitely bigger than breadboxes).
Sunday morning I drank coffee. And, uh, packed my tent. And drank some more coffee. Hardier souls went for various paddles - the speedy boys zoomed out to Red Rock (which is, I gather, a lighthouse), but that looks like it might have been strenuous (either that or Lee really likes to nap).
Fortunately, he woke up from one of his naps long enough for a group shot on Saturday afternoon. Here we are, the GLSKA non-wimps, enjoying the sun while all the ones who were scared by the forecast are stuck in downpours on the mainland.
Oh yeah, last thing I learned - it's going to be a super fun summer. Thank you Ron and Nancy for organizing a great weekend, and thanks to all the others for being such a fun bunch of people.


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Some pictures on this page courtesy of Kasia Klucznik.