Kayak Girl Summer ☀️🌊
+ my fav midwest adventures ranked!!!
It’s laundromat summer. Hair in a loose braid tangled so bad it hurts to brush, chicken with the gas gauge, light until 11 lightning until morning summer. Lake like a mirror waterfall shower summer.
Truth is I love laundromat summer. I’ve done some of my best writing in clean rooms in small towns lined with washers, some of my best chatting with the strangers that filter in, usually off sailboats. Did I ever tell you about the couple sailing north to Alaska who’s sailboat had broken down for the fifth time that summer and ended up in Washington? Or about the man who was in the coast guard most of his life, told me old ocean stories then handed me a business card for his new psychic business? Or more recently, the kid (maybe not a kid but younger than me anyhow) who had been born and raised in New York City then on a whim moved out to small town Lake Superior?
I did my first summer as a sea kayak guide on Lake Superior in 2018 (six years ago!). Since then, I spent a year teaching English in Armenia and was sent home early due to the pandemic. I went back to guiding in 2020 because I’d lost my job abroad and kayaking all summer just… stuck.
During the year I worked in a school until I started freelancing, then I quit the school and started working odd jobs and freelancing, hanging on to guiding every summer. In summer 2022 my partner Andy and our friend Ebba and I took a summer off from guiding to spend a few months paddling the British Columbia Coast, and then last summer (2023) Andy and I went out to Washington to guide overnight trips in the San Juan Islands.
I loved guiding and living in Washington but also I didn’t. Two summers away from Lake Superior, and all I wanted was to be back here, on the largest lake in the world.1
There are a lot of new emails popping up on my little list! That’s so awesome, welcome to the little Hello Stranger newsletter community! I publish a newsletter every Sunday (usually, I might fall off in July as the season gets busy but I try). Here, I try and include links to relevant trip planning resources for Midwest Adventure lovers, keep you up to date on group outdoor meetup opportunities and trips (particularly for women at the moment, but may expand in the future!),
so… what do you do exactly???
I am extremely lucky to I work summers as a primarily sea kayaking guide, and winters in freelance writing/marketing in addition to running Hello Stranger blog, focused on creating guides and content for Midwest Adventurers!. This summer and for the foreseeable future I’m guiding for Lost Creek Adventures in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore! (Yes, you can try and request me as a guide, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to work that trip! Don’t worry though, all of our guides are stellar :).
okay so what adventures are MUST-do?
Sooooo glad you asked :) If I’m ranking my favorite travel destinations for Midwest adventurers, here’s the top ten:
North Shore, Minnesota! I’ve lived here on and off for a few years but it’s gorgeous especially in the winter.
Apostle Islands, Wisconsin (this is where I work as a guide and I love it here so much!)
hi, it’s pretty out here :)
yeah, yeah, yeah, “by surface area” i know
Great list, young lady! At the tender age of 73 I'm looking forward to paddling in the Quetico once again at the end of the month; have you ever made it into Lake Agnes there? It's worth the portages into it (most know them as the Agony Portages)... keep up your good work, it's fun to follow your adventures.