Comments and e-mails...

My blog has generated several e-mails since I started it. Some of the e-mails have been from people who I know and were mentioning that they had checked out my blog and they were also welcoming me back to racing.

There have been some e-mails that have commented on my wilderness canoe trips.

The following e-mail was from Bruce who I met on the Rum River this past Saturday. I received Bruce's permission to post his e-mail to me on my blog. Thanks, Bruce.

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Chuck,

Thanks for mentioning us in your blog. It was great meeting you on the
river.

My wife and I were helping/teaching some inexperienced paddlers who are
friends of ours and want to join us for our trip to the BWCAW on our
trip later this year. They want their first trip to be with experienced
paddlers and BW trippers they know and trust. (I won't claim to be an
expert paddler, but we do have fun and I also enjoy sharing my knowledge-- when I'm not learning from someone else.) That's why, as you noticed, we switched positions -- to give them a chance in the stern as well as the bow. We figured instead of having them paddle a boat on their own, they might learn more and have more fun if my wife and I split up so we could coach them more individually and demonstrate stuff. I'm glad we did. They would have had some trouble with a few spots on the river with the relatively high water and swift current in places. The water may have been down a little, but for newbies, there would have been some tricky spots for sure. Aside from the incident you witnessed on the shore, we had a very good day and they made significant progress in their abilities. They have a ways to go before they'll be ready for the BW, but we have all summer to get them prepared.

We came across the thundering herd at the sharp turn at the end of the
small island...

At any rate, thought I'd drop you a note, thank you and let you know
I've book marked your blog. I'll be a regular visitor. Best of luck!

Cheers,
Bruce
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Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to check out my blog and for the nice comments either directly to my blog or via e-mail.

If anyone has any comments feel free to contact me.

As far as training goes I went to the health club last night. I'm now down to only lifting weights for my legs. I will still try to get in a couple times a week to do my legs. The reason with the intensity of the paddling now and the fact I will be doing longer days in the canoe the lifting is just too much for the muscles.

Besides the weights I still do abs, back exercises and stretching. I do the abs and back exercises about every other day and I stretch after doing any exercise/activity.

After lifting yesterday I did an hour on the LifeFitness Cross-training machine.

Looks like it's going to be a nice evening for a paddle, I'm looking forward to it!

Chuck