The Lake Superior Water Trail runs from Duluth, Minnesota, to the Canadian border. Along the way, campsites every 10 or 15 miles let you take your time to experience the shoreline at a casual pace, and this campsite is my favorite on the entire trail. It’s just a long afternoon paddle from Grand Marais, my home port, which makes it a great little getaway and overnight destination.
For me, kayaking is about exploration. I love to load my kayak full of camping gear and head off solo to places I’ve only read about, but I find that when I combine photography with kayaking, I can return to the same places over and over and explore their different moods and feelings without growing bored of the same scenery. I’ve paddled this route a dozen times and often hike into the campsite from the road to photograph this island tombolo, and every time I return it feels like I’m exploring a new location.
Solo kayaking allows me to explore the scenery with a different perspective than when paddling with a group. I can speed up or slow down on my whims, poke the nose of my kayak into a granite cave carved by relentless pounding of Lake Superior, or just stop on the beach to look for Lake Superior agates. It’s my pace, my adventure, but most importantly being solo takes away all the distractions and lets me explore the world by simply being in it.
When I set up my campsite on the night I took this picture, I was alone. I had planned on being at a The Tombolo, the local nickname for this island, to capture the Milky Way arching over it. I set up my camera on the beach and snagged a few shots. Wondering what it would look like if I set my tent up on the island, I set my camera to shoot on a timer and stood at the water’s edge for this self-portrait.
The resulting image of a lone person on an island, looking up at a sky full of other islands, captures a sense of adventure and the amazement gained from exploration.
This article first appeared in the 2015 Paddling Buyer’s Guide. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine and get 25 years of digital magazine archives including our legacy titles: Rapid, Adventure Kayak and Canoeroots.
