This is the traditional giving time of year. We give love, cash, cookies and gifts to family, friends and organizations whose causes we support. This is the time of year when I traditionally put a message in the newsletter that says, "Hey, if you’ve got an old kayak or canoe you’d like to donates, we’d love to have it and give you a tax write- off for it." Well, that message still stands but I’d like to take a little different tack.

At the COP board meeting in November, we all affirmed that our human assets are our most valuable ones - more so than dollars or bike frames or backpacks and boats. And the best gift of all that our organization receives is the time that our leaders and teachers give to the organization. I can’t say often or loudly enough, "Thank you!" to our boating program volunteers who give hundreds of hours each year to our programs and greatly benefit those who participate. I belong to a sea kayaking organization that, despite having 135 members, found itself without any scheduled trips last fall. It’s a shame to see that happen, whatever the root cause. I know that despite our leaders and instructors bearing a heavy load at times, we will always have a COP trip to go paddle on. With our scheduling meeting behind us, there will still be opportunities to plug in a trip or two as the paddling season swings around again. So, take a deep relaxing breath and let it out into the new year. And, as always, join us on our expeditions to somewhere.

Jennifer Thurmond on Lake Vesuvius

Heather Murgler paddling a "duckie" on the Mad River

The trip to Kelleys Island started out as innocently as any trip would. I got instructions on how to get there, loaded up the car and took off. I was off to go kayak our great lake. I got up to Marblehead, paid the $30.00 for a round trip ferryboat ride and enjoyed the 30 minute ride over to Kelleys. The sky was mostly clear with high thin clouds way up in the jet stream. It looked like good weather for the weekend!

I drove off the ferryboat and headed to the campground. When I arrived Les Groby and Rick Taylor had already set up camp and were nowhere to be found, later I found that Les took a stroll in town to see the sights and Rick paddled out to Middle Island. I started setting up my camp, and just as I finished John Lane and Joan Bowman drove up. Shortly after that, the trip leaders Curt & Debbie Goetz pulled in. The whole group was now here.

Les, John, Joan and I walked out to the pier at the end of the state park campground to see if we could find Rick Taylor. All we found was his van and a wide-open lake dotted with power boats. As we strained our eyes toward Middle Island we thought that we saw him, but it was just too difficult to tell what we were looking at from that distance. After a little more eyestrain, John started showing us points of interest on the lake. We all walked back to camp and decided to walk into town to get something to eat. Curt & Debbie stayed behind because Curt was bound to cook their steak on his cowboy stove over the open campfire. We had dinner at the Water Street Cafe. Just as we finished dinner Rick Taylor showed up, so we invited him to our table. Turns out that Rick had not made Middle Island because the flies were too thick so he paddled further into Canada and landed at Pelee Island. It was nice to see Rick and hear his stories and even better to avoid the long walk back to camp with full bellies by shoving aside the boating gear in his van and catching a ride back!

We stayed up for a while and told stories around the campfire and then settled in for a peaceful nights sleep, which it was for a while. No names mentioned but someone sawed logs all night long! When morning arrived we found no blue sky, so much for the good weather. There were thick gray clouds as far as we could see. We had breakfast and then headed for the beach. As we headed for the beach we could hear the sounds of thunder and then the rain came. At first the rain was light and the thunder was in the distance. We wondered if we were hearing ordnance practice drills at Camp Perry west of the islands. We loaded our gear into the kayaks. The ranger gave poker paddle instructions and a safety talk and we got ready to leave.

The rain and thunder became more intense. When we saw the lightning we knew the thunder was real, and not shelling drills. I was already in my kayak and paddling around the put in area when Curt said, "we need to wait out the storm." So out of the kayaks we came and headed for shelter. About a half an hour went by and the storm passed us by. I wondered what the kayakers before us had to paddle through because there were 51 entries and we were the last to set out.

Once the storm blew over the skies cleared up. Wow, that was some luck. We got into our boats and headed out for the fun part. We are in our kayaks on the great lake and here came the waves. I had never been in anything like this before. I felt like I had to be very careful and wondered how was I going to make it around, over or through every wave. It made the paddle fun but at the same time very intense.

After we cleared the northeast corner of the island the waves settled down. I could see the roller coasters and other amusement rides of Cedar Point off in the distance. We made it to the first stop, got our first round of poker cards, and stretched our legs. There was a dog at the stop who provided some entertainment. Rick found that if you splashed water at the dog it would jump toward the drops of water and try to eat them. The dog provided even more entertainment by digging up rocks from the lake bottom. Once it unearthed the rock the dog would look like it was trying to say, "someone stole my bone".

We got started again and headed south along the east side of the island. Thunder started again. We saw another storm to our north but it moved away from us. Luckily, we had missed another one. Now we were starting to head west around the south end of the island and the waves started to get big again. John and Debbie were paddling in the rear of the group and made it to shore just ahead of the ferry boat. The waves were big enough that you could ride the surf in to pick up the second card but the waves made it a challenge when it came time to leave.

In no time at all we made it to the third stop, picked up our cards and started off to the fourth stop. At this stop our host waded out so we didn’t have to exit our boats. That was nice! This was about the only time I was leading the group. I came across a small snake in the water. I shouted out to the group, and someone told me that it was probably a Lake Erie water snake and that was a rare thing to see. I felt kind of lucky that I was the one out front of the group because when I came up on the snake it quickly dove beneath the surface and swam out of sight.

Now that we were heading around the southwest corner of the Island we could see South Bass Island and the towering Perry’s Monument. South Bass Island looked so close, but it was at least six miles away. Now we could see the rock pier that marked the fourth stop. We got our cards and started to head out to our fifth and final stop. Now that we were in the lee of the wind, the water became very flat and calm and the day grew hot. Leader Curt said, "Let’s go home." When Curt gave the word I decided to see how well my COP rental kayak would perform and gave it everything I had. Before I knew it was really cruising along. I finally stopped paddling around the northwest corner of the island not because I was tired, but because of the wonderful view. This corner of the island is bordered with cliffs. It was a beautiful sight.

We finally made it back to the state park beach where we had started from and got our last card. We hauled our boats up and then played our hands at poker. Several of our group had two of a kind but Debbie Goetz had the best with two jokers and a high face card, and almost took top honors out of the whole group of fifty paddlers. After the game was over we packed up our gear and headed back to camp.

About the time we got back to camp another storm had arrived and from that point it rained off and on all night. We headed back to the Water Street cafe and filled our bellies again. We also caught the tail end of the OSU & Washington State game. We could not have asked for a better day or time to paddle. The storms missed us all day long. I call it threading the needle. We were lucky all day long.

Keith Finn loads his truck for another weekend of fun!

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