Northwaters Wilderness Canoe Camp Blog » michael jarvis http://blog.northwaters.com a bit of the inside scoop on our wilderness canoe camp for boys and girls Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:32:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 New Years Day Paddle http://blog.northwaters.com/uncategorized/new-years-day-paddle/ http://blog.northwaters.com/uncategorized/new-years-day-paddle/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:11:02 +0000 michael jarvis http://blog.northwaters.com/uncategorized/new-years-day-paddle/ January 1st 2010. My friend Bill Perkins wants to be the first one to paddle the Crystal River this year and this decade. So here we are at Fishers Landing with winter boots and many layers of wool and polypropylene clothing. His little ford station wagon is not quite stuck in the snowbank. We unload his old aluminum canoe and immediately appreciate the first difference of winter canoeing. Instead of carrying the canoe and gear to the river we just pull it across the snow like a big sled.
The Crystal River is the only river in our county. It is a twisty, four miles from Big Glen Lake to Lake Michigan and most of that is through cedar swamps in The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. In the warmer months there are many fisherman, canoeists and Kayakers on the Crystal but New Years Day Bill and I had it to ourselves.
After the first few minutes we encountered one of the inconveniences of winter canoeing. We could not get to the portage around a small dam because of ice along the shore. It was too thick to paddle and too thin to walk on. Eventually we got to shore and put in again below the dam. One of the benefits of canoeing in the winter is how still and beautiful a river can be. Around every bend was another picture-postcard view of the scenic river flowing through untracked snow and large flakes of new snow falling as we paddled silently around deadfalls and sandbars.
All too soon we were approaching the takeout, which had another ice challenge for us. We manage to get ashore without either one of us getting wet as the canoe rocked back and forth on the shelf of ice at the edge. As we walk back to the car my hands are cold but I think that any year that starts out this nicely should be a very good year.
Any canoe adventure leads me to thinking about Langskib and Northwaters. In the winter it is good to have contact with NWL alumni and staff and to get a paddle wet at any opportunity. Teeth to the Wind.

]]> http://blog.northwaters.com/uncategorized/new-years-day-paddle/feed/ 0 Voyaging in the Les Chenaux Islands of Lake Huron http://blog.northwaters.com/journal-entries/voyaging-in-the-les-chenaux-islands-of-lake-huron/ http://blog.northwaters.com/journal-entries/voyaging-in-the-les-chenaux-islands-of-lake-huron/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:38:14 +0000 michael jarvis http://blog.northwaters.com/?p=65 Recently,  I took a four day Voyageur Canoe camping trip with the senior class from the Leelanau School where I work.  In many ways it was a wonderful trip.  The weather was beautiful which is always a gift in late September.  We do this trip every year and most years end up with at least one day of paddling in rain, hail, sleet or snow with a ripping headwind to boot.  This year we had the headwind but sunny warm skies and beautiful water on Lake Huron.  Our students study the life of the voyageurs on this trip.  We read historical accounts of the voyageurs, were visited in camp by Larry young, who has been studying and re-enacting the fur traders for more than 50 years, and spent a day at Mackinac Island, which was an important hub in the fur trade.  On Mackinac Island we spent time writing at St. Anne’s church, which was established in 1670 and has served the community for more than 300 years.

The real learning for our students is the experience itself.  They know what it is like to sit on a hard seat in a 33-foot long canoe and paddle into a headwind for hours, having to work in coordination with a dozen other paddlers.  They experience the generosity of the communities we visit in many ways, and they begin to experience the sense of accomplishment and being part of a team that comes from sharing a difficult journey with others.

I loved this trip.  The seniors this year were wonderful and fun to be with.  I wished that we could have had longer to be on trail.  I wish for them, that they could experience a three week trip at Langskib or Northwaters and know that feeling that you get when you paddle back into base camp tired, smelly, and triumphant.  There are so many things in this world that you can’t learn from the internet and that is one of them.

Good job Leelanau School Class of 2010.  I hope this whets your appetite for adventure, wilderness and great paddling.

Michael Jarvis

NWL Program Director

Click here to view a  google map of our trip.

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