[Paddlewise] Who We Are

I don't have e-mail at work, so I find it difficult to keep up with
PaddleWise on a daily basis, but still enjoy chiming in on occasion. This
thread makes it even more obvious that we have an interesting and diverse
group.

I have been adventuring since my teen years when I got hooked on bicycle
touring, including a trek around Lake Superior, and culminating with a trip
to Alaska and back in 1967. That got me in touch with the mountains and the
vast wilderness areas, and I went on to bicycle pretty much every dirt road
north of 60 Latitude in Alaska and the Yukon. After some years backpacking
the Brooks Range, and mountaineering, I started to have to work more
seriously for a living, and rediscovered the water environment of my home
state.

 After destroying one of the earliest Cycolac (ABS) canoes, I got a hold of
a Phoenix touring kayak and spent the late 1970's exploring the Boundary
Waters. Gradually, I learned that I prefer to paddle rather than walk
through the woods with a boat on my head followed by a million mosquitoes,
so in 1980, I took the kayak to the Apostle Islands of Wisconsin and
discovered the addicting potential of Lake Superior. 

I have since paddled about 8600 miles, including 4500 on the Big Lake, but
have also returned to Alaska to descend the Noatak River to Kotzebue and
paddle the circumference of Glacier Bay from Juneau and back. Several trips
to Baja and an almost annual trip to the Everglades or Florida Keys helps
to keep the ice off the kayaks. 

I have worked in the outdoor equipment industry for 26 years as a buyer for
a retail store, and have been editor of an periodic sea kayakers newsletter
for the Minnesota-Wisconsin area. I also write a column for Canoe & Kayak
magazine, and am on the speakers roster for a number of the paddlesports
shows and symposiums, and for that reason, appreciate the many opinions and
tidbits of wisdom the I can mine out of the PaddleWise stream.

I too have joined the 50 club, but see no reason to slow down on the
outdoor stuff. I still bicycle to work year-round, thanks to studded
mountain bike tires and my hand-made anti-salt fenders, but I can tell as
time goes on, that paddling is the easiest activity in terms of wear and
tear on the old joints. Keep at it!

Regards, Andy Knapp
Minneapolis
(Disgusting meltdown underway, but still great powder XC skiing up on the
Gunflint.)
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