Bill Newman
I bought my first sea kayak a little over ten years ago, while living on the shores of West Grand Traverse Bayon the Old Mission Peninsula.  Having paddled white water for years, I was a bit worried that sea kayaking would be dull. Confident in my skills from paddling white water, I was surprised to feel uncomfortable being as little as a mile offshore. Three years later, I found myself in the middle of Lake Michigan, 40 miles from the nearest shore. Our group of four paddled 1 almost thirty hours to cross 80 miles of open water. Paddling all day, all night, and on into the next day gives you a unique perspective on the size of these freshwater seas. Paddling in stormy November seas at the Gales of November Rendezvous in Agawa Bay removed all doubts about sea kayaking being dull and gave me an appreciation for the awesome power of the lakes. Kayaking the Great Lakes is not just for thrill junkies. Without a sea kayak I would never have entered beautifully sculpted sea caves, played hide-and-seek with a family otters, shared a cobblestone I beach with a timber wolf, or watched an incredible display of northern lights far from the pollution of city lights. I hope this book will help you explore the lakes and find your own adventures. 

top

Sarah Ohmann
When I first moved from Seattle to the Midwest in 1990, I felt very glum indeed about the prospect of being landlocked in such a flat and featureless place. I missed the mountains and the ocean badly and dreamed of going back west after finishing school. Even the Boundary Waters, I felt, didn't measure up to the landscape of the Pacific Northwest or the hills of New England where I grew up. One day on my way back from a canoeing trip in the Arrowhead of Minnesota, I took the shoreline road instead of the inland route and ended by standing amazed, on the north shore of Lake Superior as the waves rolled in. I' had no idea that such a wildly beautiful place existed in the middle of the continent, or that the Great Lakes were capable of such weather and waves. Within two months I had a kayak and was tentatively venturing out on the water. Within a few years I found that I no longer wanted to move west again, that the western landscape no longer measured up to the country I found here. I hope this book will help you find your way to some of the last, best places, anywhere.

top

Rick Wright
Rick Wright is a long-time kayaker and teacher living in Minneapolis. He paddles with his wife and daughter, who share his love of kayaking and Lake Superior.

top

August 1998
"Paddling Into Superior's Past:
The Myeengun Crossing"
by Don Dimond, Brian Day and Bill Newman

Guide to Sea Kayaking
on Lakes Superior and Michigan
by Bill Newman, Sarah Ohmann and Don Dimond
1999
Let three expert kayakers guide you through some of the most exciting kayaking to be found on Lakes Superior and Michigan. In this guide you will find full descriptions of 49 trips, each carefully rated so that any kayaker can safely and confidently paddle on these inland seas. In addition, mile-by-mile descriptions and detailed maps for each route will help you navigate with ease some of the most beautiful and rugged habitats on the planet. Whether exploring quiet cobble beaches or the coastlines of sandstone cliffs, navigating sea caves or exposed rocky headlands, this book is a must for all sea kayakers.

Guide to Sea Kayaking on
Lakes Huron, Erie & Ontario
by Sarah Ohmann and Bill Newman
1999
Let two expert kayakers guide you through some of the most exciting kayaking to be found on Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario. In this guide you will find full descriptions of 41 trips, each carefully rated so that any kayaker can safely and confidently paddle on these inland seas. In addition, mile-by-mile descriptions and detailed maps will help you navigate with ease some of the most beautiful and rugged habitats on the planet. Whether paddling along the St.Lawrence River in search of whales, exploring castles in the Thousand Islands, navigating around shipwrecks and protected marshland, this book is a must for sea kayakers of all levels.

June 2001
"The Apostle Islands: Kayaking an Inland Sea"
by Rick Wright and Sarah Ohmann

top