Do you have any idea how great Ron and Nancy are? Do you? Of course you don't, not unless you went to the Snake Islands with them in the middle of June 2003. Then you would have not only had a great weekend of camping, but you would have received rescue instruction from Ron (and when Ron teaches you kayak stuff, he builds up your confidence too) and you would have enjoyed Nancy's baking. And the company. Did I mention that they're great company?
I met Ron and Nancy exactly one year ago, at a GLSKA rescue skills weekend on Franklin Island. During that weekend, we paddled over to the Snakes - and that's where the event was held this year. Like last year, a few of us joined the Coulsons in paddling over on Friday morning (a bit later than they anticipated, that was my fault - I showed up just as they were about to leave, and they *insisted* on taking my boat to the dock and helping me pack. I put up some very weak resistance that I'm sure everybody saw through).
Rob G., Ernie, Jerry, Dave, Ron, Nancy and I paddled over together. The trip to the Snakes from Snug Harbour took about an hour, and during that time the sky was overcast but it only rained a drop here and there. As soon as we got to the site (and what a king site it was!), Jerry and I took out rain insurance by putting up our tarps. We set up camp, had lunch, and then Rob G., Ernie, Ron and I spent a fun two or three hours paddling out to Red Rock and hanging out in the Mink Islands.
Soon after we got back, some more GLSKA members showed. Leading the pack, to no-one's surprise, was Sam, followed by Rob M., Jeff, Sarka, Ed, Kasia and Rob P. (aka New Guy). I've been lucky enough to paddle with Sam before, thus I know that "paddling with Sam" is a polite way of saying "eat my wake". Not only is he a really good paddler, he's bigger and stronger than the average GLSKA member and he paddles a 19 foot boat with a 21 inch beam. *Now* he shows up with a wing paddle, which Jim claims increases one's speed by 10%. Next trip I go on with Sam, I'm hooking a barrel full of beer to his stern.
If Sam is the king of speed, Jeff is the prince of backcountry cuisine. In my ideal trip, Sam's speed would be checked by the beer supply he'd be towing for all of us, and Jeff would make all the dinners. He pulled out a bunch of asparagus, more spice bottles than my kitchen has, and a bunch of other stuff including (and I'm not kidding here) a kitchen sink. If I were a bear, I'd be marching right into the campsite and taking Jeff's dinner, it smelled that good. Lucky for us, no bears on the Snakes.
We spent the evening hanging out under Jerry's tarp, and Ron previewed what we'd be doing on the water the next day. He also led a discussion on backcountry etiquette where the privy is concerned - fortunately for us, though, this was mostly an academic discussion since the Snakes have a fantastic thunderbox (courtesy of White Squall and GLSKA's Georgian Bay Committee).
We started Saturday morning in dense fog. A few times it looked like it would lift, but then even heavier mists would roll in. It didn't matter much to us, since our morning's plan was to completely wrap ourselves in neoprene and head out on the water. Unfortunately, this year's cold spring meant that the water was only about 6 degrees, so even with wetsuits and gloves, getting into the water was not a pleasant prospect. Ron decided to save rescues for the very end, so we would not have to be cold for long.
We started with towing. Ron demonstrated various forms of contact tows, and then he rigged me up to tow Jeff using a towing line (we were separated by a bit more than the length of a kayak). We had discussions about when the various tows would be appropriate, and somewhere in all of this Ron's pigtail slipped into the water and was not seen again.
After towing, Ron moved the discussion to braces - and though we practiced low, high and sculling braces, none of us put the boat nearly as far on edge as Ron is doing in those pictures on the right. It's hard to do a lot of bracing practice when you're terrified of dumping. Yes, the water was that cold.
Ron asked Sam to demonstrate a power stroke, and Sam disappeared into the mist in seconds. While he found his way back, Ron and Nancy showed us how to use a sling in a rescue situation (the sling joined the pigtail at the bottom of the Bay. Don't believe them when they tell you it's "floating rope").
We'd now made it through everything except the point of the weekend: self and assisted rescues. On our paddle out to Red Rock, Ron had asked me if I'd mind doing an assisted rescue with him as he talks about it, and I'd psyched myself up to going in the water. So, when the time came, I valiantly dumped - and happily accepted pump-out help once I was back in my boat so I wouldn't have to spend any more time in the water.
After that, Ed showed us his roll - and got an ice cream headache from the water. That was enough to convince the rest of them that they would not be doing assisted rescues (nobody wanted to be the rescue-ee) or practice any rolls, and Ron scrapped the paddle float rescue since it keeps paddlers in the water too long. Sam showed us his sponson setup (six breaths per sponson. This made me pull out my paddle float to see how many breaths it takes. Ten.)
Just as we were finishing up, Jim and Laverne emerged from the fog - Jim had navigated them over to the Snakes by compass. Ron spent some time with Laverne, going over stuff she'd missed, but I happily followed Sam's vapour trail in a paddle around the island to warm up again.
We got back and had a leisurely lunch (except Jim and Laverne, who set up their tents before joining us). We sat around doing various things (in my case, "various things" is a euphemism for "nothing"). Sarka showed pictures from a recent trip to the Czech Republic, and then she and Ernie huddled to discuss Austrian hiking trails. Ron made plans for a paddle to the Pancakes. The fog lifted. It turned into a stunning day.
All 16 of us did the paddle to the Pancakes - but since we all had different boat and paddle configurations, we had 16 different speeds. I paddled near Rob M. on the way over, and he kept trying to see why the Pancakes have their name - and his descriptions of various pancakes he's seen (and presumably eaten) made me hungry!
This was not a problem, though, since Nancy pulled out cookies, raisin cake, muffins and cantaloupe for everybody when we got to the site on the Pancakes. Cool. We lazed around for a while, and I checked out the camping spots on the island (not to mention the outhouse. There is one. But we would never have noticed it if Jim hadn't know it was there).
After our break, Sam proposed a longer route back (he informs me that that you can so buy a longer, skinnier boat than his Seda Glider, apparently Necky makes a 20' boat with a 20" beam. I think I'm just going to have to get an outboard if I ever want to keep Sam in sight on a paddle). Perhaps it was the sight of the wing paddle, but only Jeff, Jim, Sarka, Ernie, Rob M. and I were interested in chasing Sam's wake on a lovely paddle to Bateaux Island.
Clearly, paddling took a lot out of us. Except the Coulson brothers. When I noted that they must be tired, Ron crowed "no, we're just lazy". If Ron is lazy, then Sam is a slow paddler. But most of us snoozed in the sun for a while, at least until it was time to eat some more snacks... I drank Ernie's beer.
The rest of the day was spent in various ways, including walks around the island, more naps, reading, chatting, watching Jeff cook (in my case, scamming Jeff's spices to liven up my rather boring dinner), discussing past and future trips, and getting to know people who were new to us (including New Guy Rob, who - as the newest kayaker *and* Kasia's new boyfriend - had to put up with his share of ribbing. Please note that he did not do a wet exit, as befits a New Guy. Wetsuit shmetsuit).
Often, people sit around the fire and watch it like it's television. We had no need of the fire show, since we had something much, much better: we watched the sun set over Red Rock. It was fun, 16 people sitting on a sloping rock, watching the sun go down. The temperature also went down, it is not summer yet, so shortly after this we all disappeared into our tents.
Sunday morning started with the neoprene fashion show, and then some of the energetic souls paddled out to Red Rock. I used the excuse that Kasia hadn't brought a wetsuit and it would not be safe for her to paddle in whitecaps without one to hand her my wetsuit - thus making me look both generous and perhaps not as lazy as I am. Because all I did was sit in the sun, chatting with Nancy and Laverne. I thought it was a great way to spend the morning.
The adventurous souls came back, and we started packing up to leave. Well, most of us did - Jeff and Jim decided to stay for a while, perhaps Jeff needed to whip up some filet mignon or sushi for lunch. Jim was working on his eccentric label - he went swimming in his underwear. I yelled a childish rhyme about England, France and underpants, and was rewarded with a full moon from Jim's end. Further attempts to provoke him (while holding my camera) yielded no results. Bummer (all puns intentional).
So, as these things go, the weekend ended far too quickly. We made our way back to Snug Harbour, and then a few of us went to a cool restaurant by the docks in Parry Sound for Pickerel Burgers (yum) before rolling down the highway. I'd be sad that it's all over, except I've already got two more weekends planned with some of these folks. Hurrah. Summer is just around the corner.