And here we have the full acount of my September One circuit of Geneva Lake. Raw numbers: 8 hours and fifteen minutes (with two 30 minute breaks), 20.5 miles, somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 oar strokes. By the time I finished, the hundred yards up the hill back to my car had somehow turned into two miles, but I did it, and only have one blister and some minor fatigue to show for it the next day. But I DID it. Also: Just because you have crossed it off your bucket list doesn’t mean you can’t do it again. (There are details and descriptions with every photo that might well be worth reading.)
I started and ended at (1), and went clockwise. Individual photos are keyed to numbers, mostly.
1) Linn Pier boat ramp, 12:15 PM (scandalously late), and ready to hit the water. Two new additions to the canoe: A compass, attached to the forward seat (which I really didn’t need for Geneva Lake, was fun to play with), and a white light on a short mast, attached to the rear seat, in case (WHEN) I got caught out after sunset.
2) Shadow Lane, 1:07 PM, 2.75 miles out. Shadow Lane is still listed as a boat ramp on some maps, but the road ends 50 feet from the water, and there are no facilities whatsoever. Still, it is public land (the Linn Township Fire Boat docks there), and there is a small patch of beach-like mud where a tired paddler can get out and stretch. I didn’t stop, but I did take a minute to re-lube my hands (something I did every couple of miles all day).
3) Fontana, 1:56 PM, 5 miles out. Here we have a lonely sunbather, forsaken by everyone including the sun. I had planned to take a break in Fontana, but the facilities are difficult (a pier 30 inches above the water is a problem when you are sitting at water level, and the restrooms are nearly a quarter mile from the dock), and I decided I didn’t need the stop.
Seen along the way: Obviously the owner of this boat has read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” more than once.
4) Mermaid Rock, 2:47 PM, 7.5 miles out. As far as I know, I am the only person who calls the big rock at the end of Conference Point “Mermaid Rock”, but it reminded me of the rock in Copenhagen’s harbor that hosts the Little Mermaid sculpture the first time I saw it seven years ago, and it still does. I am working on convincing the rest of the world.
5) Williams Bay, 3:16 PM, 8.65 miles out. Williams Bay charges to launch kayaks and canoes, but they have a nice bit of sort-of beach where they will let you park, rest, and use the facilities for free. I did just that, plus a phone call to Dementia. A 30 minute break after three hours of steady rowing was a very good thing. The background to this shot is the Williams Bay public beach, which was as deserted as the one in Fontana. I missed a photo op just before I got here: I ran into a woman who was ROWING an old aluminum skiff. We talked a bit; she is the first rower I have ever met on the water, though she admitted that she didn’t really know what she was doing, she was just a vactioner who had discovered she loved being on the water.
6) Opposite Linn Pier, 5:00 PM, 12.35 miles out. I had intended to stop and stretch at Chapin Road, another not-really-a-boat-ramp, really just a road that runs straight into the water, with facilities consisting of a bench. Still, it’s good enough for a paddler, but it isn’t marked. I was beginning to think I had missed it when I looked across the lake (about 3/4 of a mile, at this point), saw my car, and knew I was half a mile too far, and wasn’t going back.
7) “The Lagoon”, 5:20 PM, 13.25 miles out. This is a minor landmark that is easy to find on a satellite map; it is actually a small island VERY close to shore, connected by the footbridge in the photo. It provides a nice bit of shelter from wind and waves, and (just after I snapped this picture), the only turtle sighting I have ever had on Geneva Lake. The lake provides a lot of fish habitats, but not really much for turtles.
Seen along the way: Stone Manor is an early 20th Century Mega-Mansion, and the largest on Geneva Lake (seen here from across Geneva Bay, about 3/4 miles). It has been broken into condos, now, a process that had just started in the mid-80s when RPG legend E. Gary Gygax lived there.
8) Lake Geneva Pier One, 6:08 PM, 15.15 miles out. I stopped for another half hour break here; it’s a GREAT place for it. There are kayak racks that are rented by the season, and a field of dinghies that serve the fleet of boats on city moorings nearby.
9) Big Foot Beach, 7:24 PM, 17.5 miles out. Official sunset was at 7:27, so I stopped briefly to turn on my light (I am not flexible enough to do it while afloat without dumping the boat), and took this picture as I started rowing again.
1) Linn Pier, again, 8:24 PM, 20.5 miles out. The wind had been more or less out of the north east all day, variable from nothing to over 15 miles an hour. Going north into Williams Bay and north east into Geneva Bay had had stretches where the wind resistance against the oars on the return stroke was noticeable, never a good thing. On the other hand, crashing into oncoming waves is fun, to a point. I never had a wave break over the prow, but a few came VERY close. On the other hand, sometimes when the wind was at my back, I got to surf a little, which is always fun. The stretch going north west toward the end was a bit scary; I was rowing across the waves, and some of them were big enough that I had to stop rowing and brace. Row four or five strokes, brace through three or four waves, lather, rinse, repeat. It’s nerve wracking and tedious by daylight; its… INTERESTING in the darkness. And then I turned the corner for the short downwind run to finish, and caught my light out of the corner of my eye, and started thinking about that lonely little light out on the big lake, and I started to sing… “In the velvet darkness of the blackest night…” Yeah, it was a GOOD day.