Don

Right, Mike . . . . Like you'd actually leave with less than you brought.

Definitely the latex socks. I put them on my Stohlquist & Gayla's Kokotat suit. A little finicky to get on, but definitely doable as a do-it-yourself job. It was a few years ago, but I believe I got the socks & glue at NE Small Craft. Don

I'm planning on coming Don Eva

A little padding in one of the dozens of boats sitting in your garage and she'll be all set. Don

That'll come in handy when I get around to doing the same thing for Gayla's Ellesmere. Did you order the parts directly from Kajaksport or get them through someone else? Fortunately I'll have my Millennium to compare to when I do it. Don

Same problem here - bought house, decided to build a garage. After 4+ years, still can't get the lazy builder to finish all the work. . . . . Problem is, the builder is ME. Don

A couple years ago I took my tandem to a pool session to play with rolling it. Before going, I had spent considerable time washing out the evidence of the porcupine which had taken residence in the boat in my shed (shortly thereafter the critter succumbed to lead poisoning). After the first roll attempt, I had to drag the boat out the door to dump outside. Took 4 trips if I remember correctly before I dared drain it even into the floor drains.

I'd like to come. Gayla is waffling, but will probably come also. Don Eva

Several years ago I was up there, primarily to go diving, but took my boat. A couple mornings while we were waiting for slack tide for diving, I took the boat out for a short jaunt, staying primarily in close to shore a bit south of the center of town. Typical of most of the Maine coast if you're near shore and/or near slack tide. I'm sure it's a different story when the current is ripping. I know when diving, if you overstay past slack tide by just a few minutes, you have to crawl back on the bottom. Don

I would have been interested also, but had a full weekend. Don Eva

Thanks for the info. We figure that if we have a place on the water we'll be more likely to get in paddle time. I'd like to spend more time paddling than Gayla will, so it'd be nice for me to be able to jump in for a bit whenever I feel like it, without having to load & unload. In that respect, I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot where it is - for any significant trips we'll probably have to drive to a put-in anyway. Last weekend we stayed at the Bar Harbor Cottages & Suites, which aren't far from Hadley Pt., so that's where we put in for the 1 short paddle we did. Hopefully we'll be able to hook up with someone else in the area to do a group paddle. Don

Hi, Just spent a couple days in Bar Harbor, and are looking to go back for a week long stay in late August. Would prefer a place on the water, so we don't have to cartop the boats to a putin - it's nice to be able to just jump in the boats & go. Kinda looking for something towards the east end of MDI, as it would be closer to more of the islands, but not a major requirement. Any favorite places to stay? Favorite paddles? Anyone going to be in the area at the end of August looking for paddling buddies? Thanx Don & Gayla

My brother lives in Colorado, and frequently takes motorcycle, kayak and raft trips to various locations. He got his SPOT last year before he rode the motorcycle up to Alaska, where he and a group of friends paddled up to the Arctic Ocean, then along the shore towards a tiny fishing village in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to be able to follow his progress on Google Map. Was a little concerned when they stayed in the same place for several days. Finally got a call from the satellite phone they had rented. Weather kept them from continuing, and had to call in a plane to take them the last 30 or so miles. If he's going to mostly be on his motorcycle, he's got the system programmed to send a basic OK message vs. a help message which includes his roadside assistance insurance info - one of us recipients would contact them to be dispatched if the need arises. Don

For the ultimate privacy, try R14-Sunday Cove. Gayla and I camped there on the July 4th weekend a couple years ago. You get a small island all to yourself in the furthest northeast corner of the lake. I was surprised that we got this site - it was the only one available for all the nights we wanted over a holiday weekend, and I reserved it about a week ahead of time. I would expect that at least powerboaters would jump at the site, even if paddlers may not want to paddle in quite that far. We almost screwed up, though. It's a long drive up there, and by the time we got up there, checked in at the campground, then drove up to the Megalloway put-in and got the boats loaded, it was already after 6pm. Took a couple hours to paddle the 6ish miles to the site, so we were pushing the time a little. Might have been a little difficult to find the site after dark, since we had never been on the lake before. We found a couple with their kid and dog poaching the site. Must have figured that since no one was there by that time, that the site was available. They claimed their boat was almost out of gas and they didn't dare try to make it to the campground just before dark. They got nervous when we whipped out the cell phone and said we'd call the campground for help, but we couldn't get a signal. Not much we could do at that point without things getting nasty, so we just set up camp, had dinner & went to bed. They left before we got up in the morning. Later, we mentioned this to the ranger, who said it wasn't too unusual - the lake's too big for them to keep tabs on all the sites. Don

Dee, Haven't looked it up, but it probably has to do with the heat capacity of CO2 vs. air. Some divers use argon to fill their drysuit for this reason, (I've been meaning to try it sometime), and I once heard someone mention that CO2 would be even better, except it can do nasty things to your skin. Don