So, to my point of todays post.  I am trying to add new information on a weekly basis, but with the holidays and my upcoming adventure, it is a challenge.  Please, to all those readers, don't hesitate to post a question or send me a note about things that you are looking for.  If I can help you out, I will get right back to you, and who knows, it may be something that multiple folks are searching for and thus worth a post on the site.

Lastly, I want to tell you that it will change your life.  It is that big an event no matter how you go about the trip, individual pieces or the whole thing.  I will be doing the trip again in April of 2011 and would love to find a traveling partner or two, even if only for parts of the trip.  Not that I mind doing it alone again, but I think having some travelling partners would allow me to experience the trip in a completely different way.  If you are interested please just drop me a note.

Best of wishes to you all.  As you finish up your trip next year, please drop by and share your experiences with myself and the others that frequent this site.

I left Seattle 3 days ago via air for the busy city of Chicago, wow, what an adjustment.  People, cars, noise, more people, TSA, lines, waiting for things versus waiting for nothing, new friends, anxiety, anticipation, all sending the senses into overload.  Re-uniting with family is beautiful but bound by small mine fields.  Expectations flowing both ways; change occurring both ways; a constant dance all amidst an environment not conducive to peace.  Breathing is interpreted as sighs; Silence for issues;  The list goes on... It is all good but perhaps requires a 24K topo map of it's own

People are busy, rushing by.  Cars go fast, coffee shops are loud.  Dog parks replace the wild.  Trees are in concrete boxes, flowers in pots.  Cement replaces sand and trains replace the shrieks of the Ravens.  Where are the birds and the otters and the seals and the whales and the gulls and the .....

Challenging to say the least, finding center is difficult.  The wild allows you to sit, it encourages your silence.  You are rewarded for being one with the moment in the bliss that surrounds you.  I do believe that these things can exist in the city, but it requires work and effort.  In the wild, it just arrives if you are open to it.  The simplicity of the paddle, the serenity of the water, the stillness of the air and the ebb of tides.  All serve to reinforce the openness and one-ness that exists amongst all of us.

There are those that say it still arrives in the city if you are just open to it.  I believe this, but the challenge is great.  You spend so much time in the wild and you come back to the chaos and you can see why people are so stressed, you can breath in the negative energy.  Why smiles on the street are returned with down turned heads or an ever so slight recognition.

Beautiful time with my amazing daughter.  I am so proud of her and her accomplishments.  She is an amazing woman,  I am so proud of her it brings tears to my eyes.  I will spend a few more days here, searching for center, relishing time with her, then on to other family and new challenges.  Lake Michigan tomorrow with friends, and then on to warm southerly waters for a bit.

The water calls, I hear my paddles vibrating. My boat soon to arrive, I look forward to time on the water.

Peace & Love,

G-

After careful checking and re-checking, my best estimate is that I consumed up to 62 pounds of Peanut Butter on my trip.  I will allow for about a 10% error factor, so it could be as little as 56 pounds, but I feel pretty good about that number!!  Adams, stir, chunky was my favorite!!

Ashley

I think the people have been as instrumental in makiing this journey awesome as has the paddling and the scenery.  As I sat there looking at the beach, knowing that this would be the end of this chapter, I was once again filled with an overwhelming sense of JOY.  The beauty of the paddle stroke; the serenity of the morning; the cloudless skies; the people; the wildlife.  Just simply an amazing and wonderful experience.

My friend Teri, the first person I met on this journey picked me up and took me back to Seattle.  However, not before we had the opportunity to crack a bottle of champagne she brought up.  Wow, what a fitting way to end this chapter.

Yes, chapter, as the journey is not over.  I have big plans for continuing on, and I will begin revealing them over the next several weeks.  I hope that you, the reader, my friends, my family, will join me on this next phase as enthusiastically as you did this one.  Your friendship, your support, your LOVE, means more to me than I could ever write.

I have come to love these three simple words.  PEACE-lOVE-COMPASSION for I have grown to believe that they are all we need.  With these three words, there is no problem to big, no issue that can't be solved.  These three words have the power to change our individual lives as well as each and every person who's lives we touch.  If we each choose to fully embrace them, there is nothing we can't accomplish. 

So with that, thank you all.  I am rich with ABUNDANCE. 

Peace Love Compassion,

G-

New Gallery of images is on-line

Fun ending images:

All that gear, .... REALLY?

While I choose to simplify the message and meaning today, I throw it out there in hopes that anyone reading this will take this challenge.  Go forth today and give of these things to those that you meet.  You will be enriched in ways you can not begin to imagine. 

The waters are calm today and the sun is shining.  The seals were out early playing in the water with the sailboats and ocean as their back drop.  These islands are magical, drawing you in, not wanting you to leave.  The simplicity of life here is as amazing as it is rich.  I will sit for one more day here, relaxing, loving, living.  Tomorrow I paddle for points unknown, someplace not thought of today.  I look forward to that which will be found.

Here is a small extract from a journal entry on my way to AK:

August 6, 2009 Sturgess to Adams Inlet

I woke at 4:30, got up by 5:00.  I love this time of morning.  The calmness is overpowering, you have no choice but to relax.  The whales were out feeding with the otters. The grey of the wild fires is still in place, making the bay seem even more mysterious.  You can only make out that which is close to you.  All else appears detailess, just dark forms. 

The morning paddle is exquisite.  As I work my way to the shore, I get my first look at the glaciated landscape.  Simply amazing.  I can't wait to see the peaks.  I work my way to Muir Point for an early lunch.  I was just reading about this spot last night.  Oh, how I am sure it has changed from the time John Muir wrote about it.... I push on for Adams Inlet while the flood is still strong.  Stop for water, then loose my MSR coffee filter :-(  Oh well... The current is like a river and it wisks me down the inlet.  Simply breathtaking views.  I don't even have to paddle, just steer. 

The views are amazing even with the haze. I turn back into the large  and am greeted with views of White Glacier.  I want to camp at it's feet, so I set course for the shore and find a pleasant little nook to camp.  The ground is so interesting, sort of crunchy, mossy, as if things were trying to take root.  I push up a little and set camp on a field of green and dandelion.  Higher, where the glacier once was is so hard to describe.  It looks as if a huge bulldozer and rock crusher has cleared a winding path down from the top of the mountain.  Now all that is left is a creek running down and tons of rock and debris, obviously left when the glacier retreated.  Very exciting!!

Note that the rocks were like little origami pieces, crushed and broken, but still in their original form.  Picking them up would cause the entire thing to come apart into all of the little pieces. 

The list goes on with people that I now call life long friends and new family.  This, all in a span of 10 days time.  I have spent years in populated areas and never been touched by people this way.  I suppose a large portion of this is 'Openess'; that is my being truly open to receiving.  However, I believe an even greater reason is that in surrounding yourself with people that believe in the same things you do and that aspire to see and do the same things that you do, is a powerful uniter of like minded souls.

All of these people I have met via human powered water travel. A simple orange kayak, floating on the seas powered by nothing more than my body, my heart, my soul.  A good number of them were travelers by car or other means, some by kayak themselves.  Each one here to experience the beauty of nature and the power of the sea.  I call them both friends and family because they all welcomed me in and touched my heart.  Bryan and Jenn shared their dinner table with me and made me feel part of their family.  All after simply paddling into a beach and saying hello.  Di & Laurie gave me a car ride into town after a simple greeting on a beach, and then proceeded to paddle with me for 3 days as we learned about each other.  We shared stories and life lessons; dreams and deep thoughts; ideas, hopes, aspirations, and our own unique stories.  Porter gave me big wet slobbery kisses. Naomi and Garrett shared their camp fire and friendship; offers of a couch in the beauty of Oregon.  Monica deeply touched my soul.  Lee and Barb provided great conversation and offers of help.  Robert made a meal for me and a hot fire to sit by.  Teresa helped me unload my boat, a total stranger coming off the water.  Cory told me stories of her travels , gave me great insight and touched my heart; Christiane shared a fire with oysters and a simple glass of wine.

I don't mean to leave anyone off, or minize the impact of one over the other.  I want to share what it is like to travel these waters, meeting new souls; making new friends; creating new family.  All love the water; the environment; the beauty of the wild.  Most long for a simpler life, one not hounded by stress, but instead filled with love of others and of the earth.  Taking from the earth only what is needed to live; giving back as much as they can.  The thought of creating a communtiy with like minded people who share the same visions for the future, is a recurring theme in all of our stories.

I don't know where this journey ends, maybe never.  I have been touched in ways that words can never fully describe, they can only provide small bits of insight to those willing and wanting to hear.  I saw a sign last night that said: 'Between the extremes, lies the path'.  I love the simplicity of that. Think it over, let me know what it means to you.  Use the discussion board to share your thoughts; tell your stories; help to keep this community going.  We are all now connected,  each bound by our crossings and experiences.  Let each of us continue the journey together.  We can do more together than alone.

Love & Peace

G-

I have been circumnavigating the islands from East to West in a counter clockwise manner.  Starting in Bellingham, travelling to Lummi, Orcas, Stuart, San Juan Island, and now on to Lopez.  As with my entire journey, the people I am meeting and the accompanying friendships are nothing short of astonishing.  The people traveling here as well as living here are all simply amazing.   I know that some of these new acquantences will become life long friends.

My journey continues to amaze me with the way things continue to happen to me.  One of my big goals in this phase of the paddle was to meet Leon and Shawna of Body Boat & Blade on the Orcas.  Well, much to  my dissapointment they were out of town when I was there last week.  Content to wait for another day, I paddled onward.... Well, as I rounded into my camp site last evening, who should be there but the two of them and their BCU students.  Wow, I was totally psyched!!  Turns out some of the people I had met on Orcas had told them of me, and so it was like a reunion of people that knew each other but had never met.  The Universe continues to treat me well.  Within minutes Leon had offered me a place to stay and rest on Orcas, which I gladly accepted.

At San Juan County park, the people were amazing but so were the whales.  I spent 3 nights there, and for two of them, the displays of Orcas was fantastic.  Such amazing creatures, so gentle and giant.  One night, with new friend Christiane, we hopped in her car and raced down to Lime Kiln Park to see the passing whales that we had just watched.  As the sun set and the light house shone, the whales came close enough to clearly see, mothers and babies and huge males!!  One of the high lights of the trip :-)

I will write and post some more images within the next several days.

G-