Adventure Kayak - 2015 Paddling Buyer's Guide

PUT-IN

BACKYARD THRILLS. PHOTO: VIRGINIA MARSHALL

HUMBLE ADVENTURES

Five splintery rungs ascending higgledy-piggledy into a low cloister of fragrant cedar boughs. It was my beanstalk, my yel- low brick road, my Argo. In fact, it was my childhood tree fort, constructed haphaz-

ardly in the woods just beyond the backyards of my neighbors. No matter that the barking of suburban dogs penetrated its airy deck. To my fertile imagination, they might as well have been hounds of the Baskervilles. It wasn’t the remoteness or grandiosity of the roost that mattered—it had neither. Looking back, it may have been the tree fort’s very accessibility that made it such a cherished escape. More and more, the idea of humble trips, grand adventure is

defining many people’s paddling experience. Peruse the stories on the following pages and you’ll notice this recurring theme. In his column, Waterlines, Tim Shuff writes of the transformative and unexpectedly enchanting experience of kayaking a local urban river. Frequent Rock the Boat columnist Neil Schulman urg- es paddlers to embrace accessible mini-adventures and stop measuring their achievements on the unrealistic yardstick of well- marketed, international mega-expeditions. Our obsession with the latter, writes Schulman, “robs more realistic trips of their own considerable grandeur.” Wild Image Project adventurer Daniel Fox, profiled on page

172, collects photos and videos from wild places to share with and inspire the many people who are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. His Minute of Nature video series encour-

164 KAYAKING || Annual 2015

ages viewers to tune out distractions and engage with nature in a meditative way, if only for 60 seconds—an achievable sabbati- cal for anyone, you’d hope. The featured image in Fathom (page 178) depicts photogra-

pher Bryan Hansel’s favorite campsite, “just a long afternoon paddle from my home port.” Hansel ups the adventure ante not by cleaning out his savings account and shipping off to Fiji for a month, but by paddling solo and returning to familiar places with a different perspective. Reading these stories, talking to other paddlers and review- ing the comments on Adventure Kayak’s social media pages is a reminder of the diversity of our readers and, by extension, kay- akers the world over. For a huge number of folks, any boat that floats and makes kayaking accessible is sufficient. For others, like Facebook fan Dennis Mike, a kayak should be nothing less than a gleaming pinnacle of naval engineering: “Spend at least $4,000,” he advises, “otherwise you’ll feel like a putz.” A determined few dream and paddle truly extraordinary ad-

ventures. Far more find joy and contentment on quiet local wa- terways. Having graduated from tree forts to tents—and to the apiary that is adult responsibility—I’m often forced to acknowl- edge that some of my paddling ambitions are, well, ambitious. While they simmer on the someday burner, the waters beyond the backyards of my neighbors beckon. When she isn’t climbing trees, Virginia Marshall is the editor of Adventure Kayak magazine.

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | Page 17 | Page 18 | Page 19 | Page 20 | Page 21 | Page 22 | Page 23 | Page 24 | Page 25 | Page 26 | Page 27 | Page 28 | Page 29 | Page 30 | Page 31 | Page 32 | Page 33 | Page 34 | Page 35 | Page 36 | Page 37 | Page 38 | Page 39 | Page 40 | Page 41 | Page 42 | Page 43 | Page 44 | Page 45 | Page 46 | Page 47 | Page 48 | Page 49 | Page 50 | Page 51 | Page 52 | Page 53 | Page 54 | Page 55 | Page 56 | Page 57 | Page 58 | Page 59 | Page 60 | Page 61 | Page 62 | Page 63 | Page 64 | Page 65 | Page 66 | Page 67 | Page 68 | Page 69 | Page 70 | Page 71 | Page 72 | Page 73 | Page 74 | Page 75 | Page 76 | Page 77 | Page 78 | Page 79 | Page 80 | Page 81 | Page 82 | Page 83 | Page 84 | Page 85 | Page 86 | Page 87 | Page 88 | Page 89 | Page 90 | Page 91 | Page 92 | Page 93 | Page 94 | Page 95 | Page 96 | Page 97 | Page 98 | Page 99 | Page 100 | Page 101 | Page 102 | Page 103 | Page 104 | Page 105 | Page 106 | Page 107 | Page 108 | Page 109 | Page 110 | Page 111 | Page 112 | Page 113 | Page 114 | Page 115 | Page 116 | Page 117 | Page 118 | Page 119 | Page 120 | Page 121 | Page 122 | Page 123 | Page 124 | Page 125 | Page 126 | Page 127 | Page 128 | Page 129 | Page 130 | Page 131 | Page 132 | Page 133 | Page 134 | Page 135 | Page 136 | Page 137 | Page 138 | Page 139 | Page 140 | Page 141 | Page 142 | Page 143 | Page 144 | Page 145 | Page 146 | Page 147 | Page 148 | Page 149 | Page 150 | Page 151 | Page 152 | Page 153 | Page 154 | Page 155 | Page 156 | Page 157 | Page 158 | Page 159 | Page 160 | Page 161 | Page 162 | Page 163 | Page 164 | Page 165 | Page 166 | Page 167 | Page 168 | Page 169 | Page 170 | Page 171 | Page 172 | Page 173 | Page 174 | Page 175 | Page 176 | Page 177 | Page 178 | Page 179 | Page 180 | Page 181 | Page 182 | Page 183 | Page 184 | Page 185 | Page 186 | Page 187 | Page 188 | Page 189 | Page 190 | Page 191 | Page 192 | Page 193 | Page 194 | Page 195 | Page 196 | Page 197 | Page 198 | Page 199 | Page 200 | Page 201 | Page 202 | Page 203 | Page 204 | Page 205 | Page 206 | Page 207 | Page 208 | Page 209 | Page 210 | Page 211 | Page 212 | Page 213 | Page 214 | Page 215 | Page 216 | Page 217 | Page 218 | Page 219 | Page 220 | Page 221 | Page 222 | Page 223 | Page 224 | Page 225 | Page 226 | Page 227 | Page 228 | Page 229 | Page 230 | Page 231 | Page 232 | Page 233 | Page 234 | Page 235 | Page 236 | Page 237 | Page 238 | Page 239 | Page 240 | Page 241 | Page 242 | Page 243 | Page 244 | Page 245 | Page 246 | Page 247 | Page 248 | Page 249 | Page 250 | Page 251 | Page 252 | Page 253 | Page 254 | Page 255 | Page 256 | Page 257 | Page 258 | Page 259 | Page 260