Back to the house of pain (Island Lakes).

The weekend of the 21st marked the first "return" to mini ironman. As you may recall, the first time we covered this was in the "aftermath post" seen here. The idea was to have those who participated in one of these return once per month and test the skills. We are also more than willing to welcome new members to any part of this. With true BBC tradition nothing went according to plan. The only returning members were Chris and myself. We had a new member, Brad, join us.

So what exactly is the ironman? The actual ironman, seen here, is a triathalon which includes swimming, biking and running over long distances. Our version includes the same, but not like that :) We do the swimming, only when we fall out of our kayaks or canoes. We do the running only when we can't make it up a hill and have to dismount our bikes and run it up the hill. And the biking... well this is the only way we're linked to the actual ironman, except that we do a fraction of the distance. Given the difference between the athleticism and our general health, we're about on par with those guys that compete in the actual ironman. See folks its just simple math.

Seriously though, I've gotta say how happy and impressed I am of both Brad and Chris. These two fine blokes are true river eels as they skip along the Huron river, not even breaking a sweat. I on the other hand, not so much. I pretty much get stuck on logs and tend to scrape the bottom of the river where the water is very shallow. I rely on my strength to muscle through obstacles in my way. I also tend to fall in a lot because my balance in the canoe is poor. I am getting much better. This time around I only fell in once, and technically before I deployed the canoe, so the actual trip I went without falling in once. I've had at least a dozen close calls.

The setup was great. The idea was to chain up the bikes where the canoes would end up, Riverbend. This was the first stop and it measured at approx. 1.5 hours of paddle time. Next, we would beach our kayaks and canoe, and bike back to the rental booth, which measured at approx. 4 miles. We would then load up the bikes into the truck and head home. It all went pretty well. I got my butt kicked on the water, but I was able to redeem myself on land. The best part of this whole outing was that we got oppressed by the "man."

When we first arrived to Riverbend, the gates were closed. There was a DNR ranger waiting for us there, who before even saying hello was kind enough to inform me that I was speeding. I didn't see any kind of chronograph equipment in his truck, so I guess you must develop an eye for that sort of thing once you've been in the bush for a while. Next, he wouldn't let us into the site because there was a "party" that bough the site out for some kind of family reunion. We had to explain ourselves and when he realized that we were only going to beech the kayaks and leave he's said ok. So, this is exactly what we did.

unfortunately our 4th didn't show, so we had to leave one bike behind. When we returned, one of the "party" people stopped me and said that we need to talk to the ranger again. When I approached him, he said "...I though I told this morning you that you couldn't be here..." and I had to explain myself again. This time, I didn't get a warning for speeding. I told the ranger that we're only coming back for one bike that we had to abandon. The "party" member confirmed this. He said that there was a bike chained up to a tree down by the river. I would have been out of their way in about 45 sec. But with the ranger and the party guy stopping me I ended up wasting about 5 minutes of their precious time. The ranger felt that he had to mention that those people paid "good money" for the spot, and that people have been coming into the parking lot all day. Which apparently gives him permission to be a dick to everyone he runs into.

So, we got the bikes and we left. It was an awesome day. Got some exercise in, we bonded with nature and one another and then we got some ice cream. The end.

"Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind. Can he walk at all? Or if he moves will he fall?" - Black Sabbath, Ironman