The past week has been a blur, between moving friends then immediately hitting up The Lakeland Paddle Circuit solo, cutting hay, birthday parties for friends and then off to my first fishing tournament.
It's been on my radar for a long time to do the whole paddle circuit, timing worked out to try to finish it solo last week. 27 hours later I finished the 38 km paddle, 8.8 km portage trip. It wasn't a pleasure cruise, I wanted to push to see how hard I could go to mimic what I'm about to do.
Head and crosswinds managed to keep me working most of the time. Fallen trees and crappy unmaintained portage trails made it a challenge.
This photo was the nice part of the trail!
To be fair the Blackett Portage is marked as a closed trail but people still use it. The lakes were amazing and I ended up with an epic site for the night. Along with lightning striking so close to my tent it shook me. As per usual I rode out a huge thunderstorm on the circuit; it's my fifth year on there and every year it happens.
Coming home tired but content, I was able to take a friend out on a local lake for coffee and cake birthday paddle one morning. Of course I had to take Scout along, she's obsessed with paddle boarding or anything I'm doing.
Cutting hay Thursday in the heat after paddling and heading off to a party that night along with DD'ing for my daughter and her friends at 2 am was the perfect storm for a migraine. Sooo instead of packing and getting ready to leave for my first SUP fishing tournament I was bedridden even with medication until 1 pm when we had to leave around then ideally.
Thank goodness for an awesome husband that got most of it ready and I just packed food and clothes once I was moving around but I always feel hungover after and I sure wish I had more fun to feel like that.
The fishing tournament was a grind for many it was a slow bite, being the only SUP fisherman it was a novelty for all the kayakers to watch this weird form of fishing. I love SUP fishing as it keeps my back from seizing up. For me sitting is painful after too long.
Many lessons were learnt in this derby, such as how hard it is to measure fish on a board. My first fish was a tiny Northern Pike and little did I know how rare or lucky I was to find one first try. As I was about to take the picture...flop into the water it went. New skills were developed after that! Next fish I got the pic and it turned out to be my only fish scored.
Special thanks to The Western Canadian Kayak Fishing Trail organizers for The East Slopes Kayak (SUP) Fishing Tournament!!
Everything is coming together as I get closer to embarking on this journey, there's lots of work to do yet. This week will be a "rest" week or as close as I can get to it within the parameters of my life.
As many obstacles as I can imagine about this trip, I can picture many great moments as well. Although I can't predict the future, I do really feel deep down in my soul how lucky I am that I have the opportunity, means and support to do this. Seriously, that fills me up just thinking about it!
Fun seems to be the common theme everyone throws out about this trip and maybe I should start to believe them as I just picture a whole lot of discomfort while trying to maintain time and distance each day.
Fun. What will it take to make this long paddle fun? It's something to reflect on until then. I'm stoked to have Reta Boychuk for the first five days that will be fun!
Our lives are lived in our head and how we perceive ourselves, the world around us and the expectations we attach to it are all within our control. I understand when the body gives out the mind can carry you for a very long time.
Something has stuck in my mind since Nand (read previous blog) said it: "You are moving West to East." He repeated it more than once and for me that has spiritual meaning. This is meant to be hard and it is meant to crack your soul a bit to help you discover more about who you are deep inside.
Easy to philosophize about behind a computer, hard to rationalize when you're in the suffering. Time will tell....
Thank you for all the continued support and reaching out to connect!
Lisa Stocking
CANRVRSUP Instructor
AQ Ambassador