A Trip to Wisconsin
by Charles Burchill
I had travelled to Pine Lake, Wisconsin, once before, before the pandemic. I spent my time then to take some basic paddling and canoe obedience lessons. I met some fantastic people then and learned a lot about canoe instruction and picked up a few new skills. I had decided to go back and extend my FreeStyle learning in 2020 but a little bit of protein and RNA called SARS-CoV-2 got in the way.
This year I had the chance to return to Pine Lake and renew some friendships and continue my FreeStyle Journey. Once again I made the 12 hour drive to arrive just after supper to a warm reception and hug, registration and a good sleep before the morning Canadian Style session.
Just as I was turning onto hwy 21 I heard on the radio that a tornado had gone through the area – this was backed up by downed trees along the route. Arriving at camp I found out that there had been a question about the symposium even running because the power was still out Thursday morning. Throughout the area there were broken trees and downed branches – the camp staff did yeoman’s effort over the weekend cleaning and straightening.
I was given the opportunity to give two sessions myself – one on Canadian Style paddling See “What’s In A Name?” and one on stopping. I discovered on my last trip that bringing the Canoe to a complete and controlled stop is outside of the usual FreeStyle tool box. After a discussion, in person and online, with the organizers I said I would do a session called ‘Stopping on a Dime’. This session was well received, and I was asked to give several short ‘private’ sessions with success.
I had the chance to take two personalized FreeStyle sessions with Marc Ornstein and Molly Gurien. My plan was to fill in some gaps in my basic knowledge and skills, plus get some help and direction on reverse and cross reverse manoeuvers.. What I didn’t expect was the awesome conversations about paddling, life, and salt marshes. I even had the gumption to show my mentors a few things they didn’t know.
Friday Evening I joined the fun paddling the Giant Slalom course – I was inspired to watch everyone make their way around the course. Marc, of course, did the whole thing cross reverse, and the camp staff, towed by Nick (the Director) and his dad, snaked around the course on a range of floating toys.
Saturday the whole camp was treated to an exposition of music and skill – Paul Klonowski started the show with a wonderful dance. I followed this up with a demonstration of line and displaced pivots (gimbals on a string). Bruce Kemp and Anita LoVan delighted us with an exquisite show of tandem FreeStyle. Molly Gurien gave us a beautiful rendition. Marc Ornstein filled out the evening with an inspiring demonstration to “There’s a New Star Up In Heaven Tonight” by Chris DeBurgh. We missed Bob Mravetz and paddled in memory of Elaine Mravetz.
Each evening we met in the retreat centre for some socializing and music. It is one of those things that I really enjoyed on my last trip, and this year didn’t disappoint me. Originally I had expected conversations about canoes, paddling, boats, manoeuvers – all of those happened of course but just like connecting with old friends family, travel, home, and life blended in seamlessly after a long day of learning on the water.
Sunday morning I was going to spend taking pictures and practicing things that I had learned. Paul Klonowski was also at loose ends and asked about that stopping stuff (and one handed Mason Jams) that I had been discussing with some of the other instructors. Paul is such a skilled paddler the stopping stuff lasted only a few minutes – I took the chance to chat about paddling philosophy, interactions with instructors and organizational bureaucracy (things seem to be the same the world over).
Sunday afternoon I was sad to leave, I will miss my friends, but I am inspired to take my new skills and knowledge home with me. Although I learned a set of new skills to add to my paddling toolbox I left with so much more through new friends and connections, I hope to be able to return to Wisconsin but also attend some of the additional symposia.
Thanks
Charles.
Ed. note:
On the evening of June 15, less than 24 hours before Wisconsin Canoe Symposium participants were scheduled to arrive at Pine Lake Camp, a major storm blew through camp, and a tornado touched down not far from there. The camp lost more than 50 large trees due to the wind, and power was knocked out…
Food for our event was in refrigerators at camp, there was no electricity, and the power company had no idea when power would be restored. Camp Director Nick Coenan arranged for generators to keep the food intact. By morning, power was still not on, and the power company indicated it might not be restored until “this evening or tonight.” Canceling our event looked highly probable, but Tracy and Paul decided not to make phone calls to call off the long-distance travelers… Camp Staff had not canceled, so they were still hoping to hold it.
Tracy and Paul were en route to camp (it’s only a 3 hour drive for them… a home game) when Camp Director Nick Coenan called Tracy to let him know power was restored. Truth be told, Nick had already made the decision to cancel, and was about to start making phone calls, when the power company truck drove up, and indicated they’d be up and running in an hour…
That resolved that issue. Nick and volunteers still had to deal with a lot of fallen trees and branches, that were literally everywhere, blocking roads, trails, parking lots, and anything else you can think of. Remarkably, only one building sustained major damage, and nobody was injured. Nick managed to coordinate an army of volunteers to show up with chain saws, so by the time Tracy and Paul arrived, most roadways in camp were open, and most trails around the camp buildings were accessible. The volunteer crews kept coming in every day, throughout our stay there… large piles of tree parts were carted away using skid loaders, and none of the extra work interfered with our Symposium. The effort that was involved was herculean, to say the least… THANK YOU to Nick, Camp Staff, and the Volunteers, for the extraordinary work they did to enable us to conduct our event as scheduled!