An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

Quasimodo eat your heart out, because this Saturday I roamed a cathedral in a way that even the hunchback would be jealous of. We went on the roof. We went in the attics. We visited a staff conference room (because it had some stained glass). Back stairs and catwalks. We went everywhere! Someone in the local bicycling community is a long-time docent at the cathedral and had organized a bike ride and group tour during Freezing Saddles . The bike ride included sites relevant to the cathedral (yes, Pierre L'Enfant had a spot in his DC plan for a national cathedral, but it was in a different spot - where the Portrait Gallery is today), and a tour of the cathedral itself. The event was popular and so he decided to repeat it. The problem is that he came down with some sort of flu and so didn't feel up to the bike ride part. Instead, we met at the cathedral and went straight to the tour part - which he expanded to an amazing three hours! The cathedral We started by riding a spe...

Back in 2014 I dropped out of a trip to Maine and went instead to the Kiptopeke Kayak Symposium . I've been told I don't understand why I didn't go to Maine, but that aspect of things is not what we're focused on right now - what is important is that at Kiptopeke I discovered the big lodges that are available for rent at Virginia State Parks, and I immediately realized that they would be a cool place to spend some time with a group. About a year later I visited Floyd, Virginia on my way home from Nashville  and was blown away by the vibrant traditional music scene there - I felt like an anthropologist who had happened across an undiscovered tribe of some sort. Since then I have been preaching the charms of Floyd (not Floydfest, that's something different). It took a few years, but eventually I managed to put together a group trip that included both staying in a Virginia state park lodge and visiting Floyd. And kayaking, of course. And there you have the backstory of...

I won't write much about SK102, since I've documented it many times before in years past. As always, it's my most complicated packing of the year - car camping gear, music gear, and paddling gear. Friday night was rainy, with some serious little storm cells about. One of these storms hit just as I arrived on Friday. I pulled into the parking lot just in time to see a tent go tumbling by down towards the lake (it turned out to belong to Cat, the event organizer). Later, Cat and I saved a pop-up shelter that was trying similarly trying to escape in the wind by borrowing some stakes and staking it down. There was even a tornado watch in effect, which caused the Friday night paddle to be cancelled. The weather the rest of the weekend was spectacular. Far better than the average SK102 weekend! SK102: All the boats I taught the basic class (basic strokes, wet exits) Saturday morning with Frank D. This was the total opposite experience of teaching with Jim Z. Jim is super ...