Abandon

The latest new with me is that I got left on an island. It was fun.

Here’s how this came to be:

Last weekend, Josh Doug and I set out on a little kayaking journey. The plan was to kayak across the Straits of Mackinac, then on to Bois Blanc Island – which for those of you who don’t know is East of Mackinac Island about 4 miles. We headed up Friday morning, which put us starting a little late in the day – I think it was about 3:30 or so… I could check my GPS log, but that’s a lot of effort. We kayaked across which is always a fun time, then turned to head toward Mackinac Island which was a paddle into the wind :-(. We had a freighter come damn close to us after it passed under the bridge and turned to cut between Mackinac and Round Island. Due to the distance and time of day, we ended up camping on Round Island instead of paddling the 3 or 4 miles further to Bois Blanc.

On Saturday it rained, which was annoying – but when you’re camping and it rains you’re going to get wet regardless of what you do so there’s no good reason to let the rain stop any activity. So, we paddled over to Mackinac Island in the morning got some pizza and sandals – because they were on a very good sale :-). There really was minimal reason for this paddle other than something to do – and I guess we needed a lighter also since the matches were damn and running low. In the afternnon we started a hike around the island, which turned into a zig-zag into, across, back across, and down the island until we got to the lighthouse – which was closed for repairs (a sign which I was pressured into ignoring and will probably suffer brain damage from the lead paint as a result of). We were all damp from hiking trough the island, but it cleared up into a nice evening.

Sunday we got all packed up to leave. That was the last coordinated thing that happened. We had found a makeshift pit toiled on the island and were going to make a stop there before leaving since I average about two shits a day, this was important for me. I did not really feel I needed help or an audience for this, so I paddled off ahead of the group – this was in about 4 ft of water, so I didn’t really have safety concerns. I finished my poo and found the Josh and Doug had not yet rounded the corner/point of the island – this was concerning to me since it wasn’t that long of a paddle for them to be so far behind. I figured something must have happened, so I doubled back to camp to see what was going on. I found no-one on the way or at camp. My only real guess at this point was that they had decided to paddle around the other side of the island since it was something we had never done. So I figured I’d catch them and headed off on a quick rounding of the island that way. No beans.

They had decided to go check out the cruise ship which had anchored near Mackinac, and I had not seen them on my way back to camp. After they were done they headed to the point (lighthouse) and not finding me there continued on to Mackinaw City. I was coming around the other side of the island, and did not see them out in the Straits. So I beached near the lighthouse to wait for them – where ever they might be – since they’d have to pass the lighthouse to leave the island. Waiting was basically the story for the rest of the day. I made a couple more quick trips back to camp to see if they might be waiting there with no results.

After my final trip to camp, my plan was to head over to Mackinac and get a lighter and some water for the night then paddle back to Round Island and set up camp near the lighthouse and continue my wait. On my way to Mackinac, Josh calls me and tells me that they are in Mackinaw City – splendiferous. So I hopped a ride on Shepler’s (Arnold stops an hour earlier) back to the mainland.

So, that is the story of the latest kayak trip. My conclusion – yes, I got ahead of the group to take a shit, I did not head out on an 7 mile crossing with only a partial group.

PS apply a hefty dose of sarcasm to that first line.

Bookmark the permalink.

About norconkm

I'm a person. I live in Grand Rapids, MI and work as an Electrical Engineer. My hobbies at the time of this writing are kayaking, skiing, archery, photography and maybe biking. As this is my personal blog, my hobbies are likely the primary topics about which you will be reading.

2 Responses to Abandon

  1. tlzita says:

    Poor Matt. In the future, you should insist that the others watch you poop.

  2. lemonslush says:

    Great story. Even for someone who’s never been anywhere near Mackinac, all the details made it very easy to visualize…well, except for the pooping. :-p

Leave a Reply to tlzita Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *