Paddle sports are in my blood. Since I was a little kid sitting in the middle of a canoe on the Platte River with my Dad, I have loved dipping into paddle sports. At Camp Leelanau on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, I learned to canoe and began signing up for every camp canoe trip that came along — from the Little Manistee all the way up to the Batchawana River in Ontario.
Here's a Camp Leelanau Alumni canoe trip down the Pine River -- not bad for October, but the water was bone-chillingly cold.
It wasn’t long before my paddles started sprouting two blades instead of just one.
Howard Rice, a local kayaker who rounded Cape Horn in a kayak in the early 90s inspired me to more modest journeys in my growing fleet of kayaks.
Now, kayaking is a family affair, with my wife, Carol, and our 5-year-old daughter getting in on the act.
Gerry's ambush
Carol Johnston cruises Black Lake
- “The water’s perfect!”
