Picking up paddles

Jenni has been working a lot lately, even on weekends. It's the time of year when the "trail staff," as they are known, come on board at Wilderness Inquiry for the summer. There's been plenty to keep Jenni busy as far as training and helping the staff get into the swing of day events.

Often, those day events involve group canoe trips in W.I.'s voyageur canoes that seat up to 12 people. I'd never seen one in person, so Jenni prodded me to accompany her to a day event on Sunday at St. Paul's Lake Phalen. The event was focused around the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and W.I. was there to provide free canoe rides to anyone who wanted to get out on the lake. This is where W.I. shines: anyone who is interested in paddling can go - even those with disabilities. While we were there, I watched the staff take a family of three out in one of the canoes: mom, dad, and their son who was in a wheelchair. Up until Sunday, I'd wager that was an experience the three of them had never shared.

We arrived early for setup on a humid, gray morning. Lake Phalen was practically glass. Birdsong echoed from the trees. Plenty staff members on hand meant I was most useful staying out of the way, so that's what I did...explored a little bit of the park, sat on the seawall along the shore, and snapped a few pictures of W.I's three beautiful canoes tied up at the dock.

The canoes surely would be appreciated by any paddling enthusiast (photo here). At 24 feet long, they're quite large, and constructed of cedar strips - incomparable to any other watercraft I've seen.

By the time Jenni was ready to take the staff on a proving run on the lake, the steely layer of clouds was pockmarked with brightness, hinting at the promise of a sunny afternoon. Jenni showed the staff their canoing route by manning the stern, while nine of us piled into the rest of the seats. My seat was starboard, last row before the stern.

Despite its size and the number of us weighing it down, the canoe slid through the water with grace. Jenni piloted us up the shore, under a couple of bridges, and through a narrow canal around an island picnic area. It was marvelous to cruise the canal, just a stone's throw from families on the shore and fisherman hoping for a bite. Our course included weaving around a couple of bobbers.

Paddling necessitated a bit more effort: Since I was sitting in the back, I had to coordinate my strokes with the girl ahead of me, who had to paddle in sync with the person ahead of her, and so forth. And being wedged next to someone who's paddling on the port side of the canoe made this operation tricky...I couldn't swing my elbows about as I am wont to do in a normal tandem canoe. This took some getting used to, but eventually I fell into a rhythm - sort of, anyway.

That's about when I started to recall muscles I'd forgotten. It dawned on me just how much preparing I ought to be doing for a solid week of canoing that is now less than three months away. I suppose it's never too late to get started, right?

Fortunately, a remedy should be arriving tomorrow if all goes according to plan. I've already mentioned the kayaks that Jenni and I ordered from Current Designs. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Winona, in far southeastern Minnesota, to pick them up. And, if luck is with us, we should be able to hit the water in our new boats sometime over the weekend.