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Thanks to my benevolent benefactor and intrepid guide Chuck Freedman, I was able to paddle not once, but twice on what would normally have been a land based trip to San Francisco.

Chuck made a long drive from Reno Nevada with gear to paddle with me.

We decided to head out to Santa Cruz and paddle north along the coast. We were treated with sea stars, pelicans, a hoard of sea lions, and after some searching, sea otters. As a great lakes paddler, I am used to an inert sea, a sea teeming with life sometimes bigger than the kayak is a real treat. The sea lions were not very wary of humans and let me get quite close. The sea otters were quite jumpy about me. I tried to gauge distance, but found that I drifted too close, the sea otter turned and hissed at me in anger and then dove.

Chuck and I proceeded along the coast followed by sea lions and pelicans. We ducked into coves, caves and around sea stacks. Can’t top that.

The wind was up around 20 knots and gusting to thirty, so we turned around and sailed back into the harbor.

The paddle under the Gate and along the Marin headlands was nothing short of magical. The wind was up again in the bay, around 25 knots. We ducked behind the headlands and followed the coast tucking in and out of coves. We hurried past gay nude beaches, and then finally saw some harbor seals. They were quite nervous about us and all nipped into the water once our kayaks were within a few hundred yards. But they continued to be curious about us until we rounded the Marin Headlands and saw the lighthouse. The seas were very lumpy around the outside. I managed to squeeze off a few shots, but the clapotis off the rocks was pretty intense while my hands were not on my paddle.

Chuck and I surfed back with the wind and the tide. Two and a half hours out, 45-50 minutes back. It was the sort of sea state that brings joy to my heart. White caps as far as the eye could see, green frothy seas whipping along. A few good sprints carried me along at a terrific pace. It was one of those days where you wish you could go on forever, and then off the edge of the map.

Ever the man to be suckered by active apparel, I traveled to the mecca of bike commuting apparel, San Francisco. One of my many hilly runs through the city of verticality, I ran to the Chrome Messenger Bag store to take a gander at the bags, and the knickers. Before one can scoff at the idea of men wearing capri pants, these are essentially casual bike shorts. Short enough not to get stuck in the teeth of the chain ring. Handy you say? Stylish too?

The knickers are stretchy and lightweight, I tried the heavier version and they are pretty great too, but somewhat useless in my opinion for the oppressive heat of summer in Michigan. And were it colder I would wear real pants or tights. For San Fran where it doesn’t snow, but just gets windy and rainy I’m sure they do fine. The sizing is a bit weird, I have a 33 inch waist and they list the Mediums as up to a 32. Without a belt they slide off my not insubstantial arse. So watch the sizes. The chamois on the inside is actually somewhat nice, in that it is not so big it makes one feel like they are wearing a diaper, but enough to protect the jewels.

I’ve tried several messenger bags to little avail. Apparently the rest of the world assumes everyone is 6’0” tall with an extremely long torso. I however am a runty 5’7” with short legs and a short torso. The result is a messenger bag that slides forward onto your belly while heading up hill or pedaling hard under any conditions. Mainly because the strap on the messenger bag is too long to tighten to your torso. So Timbuk2, Patagonia, Osprey, Mountain Hardwear all failed to outfit me due to this limitation, despite their cross body stay-straps on the bags.

I tried the Chrome Metropolitan and have found that it does not slide forward due to the nature of their shoulder strap and the variable adjustability in length. The fact that the strap uses a seat belt buckle is an added cool factor sure, but a little heavy. The bag is waterproof and takes a hoarkload of gear!

It was fun to see so many people commuting by bicycle, and that a great majority of the younger crowd were on single speed cross bikes with touring tires. Funny that?....

Check out Chrome Messenger Bags and Apparel

My wilderness trip this year led us to Lake Superior Provincial Park. Somehow I always run out of gas to wax poetic about the wilderness trips. I will say this, it is every bit as beautiful as Pukaskwa. However towards the end, Highway 17 is clearly audible and visible at many points. I could only get a fraction of my pictures up on flickr due to bandwidth. I may have more later.

We paddled south from the Michipicoten river towards Agawa Bay.

We really took our time and tried to see everything. There was however a lot of Patrick O’Brian novel reading going on, naps being taken, and generally a more vacation like pace than in previous trips. It was actually relaxing rather than exhausting.

Check out the pictures here: Lake Superior Provincial Park

As anyone knows, I am an unrepentant U2 fan. It is a sickness that has provided years of enjoyment. Having seen the band live a few times, also some of the best concert moments ever. The last show that Laura and I saw on the Elevation tour was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, despite how crappy the seats were.

I checked the U2.com website, not something I do much these days after the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album. There are possibly three redeemable songs off of that album, and one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard.

It appears that the band is in Fez, Morocco working on new material. I think it is probably more proper to say, I am unrepentant fan of all U2 music where Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois are involved. Lanois in particular is a favorite of mine. It is one of my missions in life to see him live before too long. I somehow missed his Shine album tour. His solo albums, Acadie, For the Beauty of Winona, Shine, the soundtrack for Slingblade, and now his new instrumental stuff, Rockets, and Belladonna, are always in heavy rotation.

I think it very very possible that really that my heart’s deepest desire is for Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to become members of the band so that I am guaranteed high quality material. But I think that may be short sighted.

There seems to be a pattern since the first collaboration back in 1983 -84 on the Unforgettable Fire. The band does a few albums with Brian and Danny, and then breaks away thinking they’ve got to try something new, and low and behold the crap generator churns loose. Note this sequence:

The Unforgettable Fire
The Joshua Tree
Both produced and engineered by Flood, Lanois, and Eno.
Both amazing albums with heavy contributions from Brian and Daniel.

Then comes Rattle and Hum, produced by Iovine. Hmm crap by most people’s meter, I think there are two really great songs on there, All I Want is You, and God Part II.

Ok so they go away to dream it all up again, this time with Eno and Lanois at the helm of Achtung Baby, arguably (arguing with myself mainly) my favorite album.

Then they travel on to Zooropa with just Eno, for a fairly good return, The First Time and The Wanderer are both great tunes from that album. Stay Faraway So Close is a killer tune.

Then comes Pop, produced by Howie B. Crap for the most part, some managerial problems in terms of booking the tour before the album was done, but oh well.

Then some time later, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, terrific album, produced by Eno and Lanois.

Then the bummer of all bummers, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, jack knife lee and steve lillywhite who produced most of the band’s early stuff, Boy, War, October. Daniel helped with one of the album’s only listenable songs too. And the big number, City of Blinding Lights is an Eno hopeful, that could have used some editing and some real Eno magic.

So I think the pattern is pretty clear that with the dynamic duo back, the band may find it’s stride again. For the love of peter, I hope so, because I can’t take another stinker.

And from the picture above, a careful observer will notice the bald white guy surrounded by keyboards to be Brian Eno, and the man at the bottom of the photo with a guitar is Daniel Lanois. Bono seated on the couch, edge top left, Adam Clayton to the right of Danny, and Larry Mullen curiously not behind the drums, but perhaps his legs are just above the drum kit there.