Yesterday we did 2 hours in the canoe. We use kayak paddles in case I didn't mention it. We can really fly for a human powered boat. Today we did a little over 2 hours. I stop paddling twice usually to take a swig of water. Elaine breaks a bit more often because she's battling carpel tunnel in a wrist.

We will start wearing life jackets when the air temps reach about 50. We keep them in the boat with a dry bag for cell phones and a wallet. We get very up close and personal with the shoreline. Part of that is because it increases the distance we go but additionally we can look at stuff and it keeps us in calmer water.

I am a life long water man having spent 2 years on a destroyer, worked fishing boats and gone from owning pontoon boats, speed boats and cruisers. We stat on a 40 foot Chris Craft 3 or 4 days a week . She's old and we work constantly on her. I usually like cruising on the roughest of days.

The same holds true in the canoe but we hug the shore when it gets really bad. We'll go out in anything this lake can toss at us. One day two years ago we had to dock the Chris in a 60 mile per hour wind. That's our kind of day.Elaine is an excellent deck hand. Often as not I can't see her when we dock but we've been doing this a while. I gave up my 100 ton masters license when we moved to this lake.

The canoe will provide good upper body exercise along with a few adrenalin rushes this winter. For Tim and Ivan...We have about 40 subfreezing nights per winter and maybe a week that stays below freezing. Surface water temps in January and February are in the high 40s. Winter winds produce white caps about 30 or 40 days in winter.

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