By Mary Fairchild (Dungeness ; Cumberland Island.) It was just a year ago that I had first stumbled across some ancient scattered shells by the Carnegie Ruins on Cumberland Island and couldn’t stop thinking about them… Cultural ecology is a map of relationships between living things and their group dynamics over time. The Dungeness Historic District on Cumberland Island(pictured) and the…
Category: Paddle/Hike/Play
St. Patrick’s Day: Kayaking on the Chicago River
By Mary Fairchild My daughter and I had a bird’s-eye view as we were herded over the bridges along with some 350,000 others who came out for the annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities including the dyeing of the Chicago River this past Saturday. The paddle tour was organized by Paddle & Trail, Geneva Kayak, and CASKA (Chicago Area Sea Kayakers Assoc.). Kayak instructor Mark…
Kayaking With Altamaha Coastal Tours: Ancient Tidal Forests to Ocean Renewables
By Mary Fairchild (Rifle Cut) Buffalo Swamp Natural Area/Cathead Creek,a tributary of Georgia’s Altamaha River. Just as Egypt used slave labor, the channel pictured above(Rifle Cut) was dug out in the 1820s by slaves to shorten the water route to Darien: “Straight as a rifle shot through the cypress swamp and just as narrow.” “Mary, can you…
Kayaking Cobscook Bay and Coastal Maine
By Mary Fairchild As every mariner knows, to truly discover the character of Maine and her people one must approach them from the water. Christopher Little At one time, according to maritime superstition, it was believed that having a woman on board your boat angered the seas and that she was an omen of bad luck for everyone. This past week we had…
Paddling Lake Okoboji: Once Considered One of Only Three Blue Lakes in the World
(Arnold’s Park; Set on Flickr) West Okoboji Lake is located to the south and west of the City of Okoboji and northwest of the City of Arnold’s Park in northwest Iowa. Last week I was able to paddle some of my favorite areas of the lake where we frequently vacation with my husband’s family. Vacation…
Sea Kayaking and Whitewater: Roughing it With Scott Berry and Nigel Dennis
By Mary Fairchild What could be better than kayaking the Apostle Islands? Yup–having Nigel Dennis join you. In order to get better acquainted with rough water this year, I started to look for opportunities to get familiar with whitewater kayaking. This past week, I opted to get out on Wisconsin’s Wolf River and follow Scott Berry, another expert in kayaking, for a couple of days on…