Inflatable Kayak Blog

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we were in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the Houghton area at our “camp” on Portage Lake.  We had been out in the kayak on the calm lake and after a break we decided to drive to White City for another paddle. White City is a sandy beach park on Lake Superior. There’s a neat lighthouse there that sits at the end of an old cement pier about ½ mile long at the entrance to the channel to Portage Lake. In earlier years, when copper mining was the biggest industry in the area, this lighthouse was important to the ore boats that made their way through the channel to unload in the Hubbell area.

Though this is Lake Superior, it is a calmer area to put the kayak in, with its long sandbar that stretches out quite far along the pier. It was quite windy with a distinctive a chop to the water. We wanted to get another chance to try out our new kayak sail and this was definitely a good time for that. We paddled into the wind, down the shoreline for what seemed like a long time, especially since it was our second paddle of the day. We picked a spot to turn around and undo the sail. Unfortunately, we had gotten the steering guides hooked under the sail when we clipped it to the kayak and couldn’t use the guide. I had to just hold on to the side of the sail and catch the wind as best I could and steer that way. Even though we didn’t have the sail hooked up correctly, we did make it back to shore in no time flat with the nice wind we had going for us. I think after we have had a chance to use the sail and know what to expect (and don’t make a stupid mistake clipping it to our inflatable kayak), it will be a nice addition to our kayaking.

With that trip, now we can say we have been kayaking in Lake Superior. Maybe we will be brave enough now to put it in the ocean the next time we are there.