New article in October issue of Ocean Paddler (#66)

"I’d chosen a source-to-sea expedition format with few open crossings and no real wilderness. A true beginner’s path. By hand-railing riverbanks and coastlines, much of it developed and populated, external unknowns were few. External risks, such as dangerous inlets or hurricanes, were knowable and avoidable. With no prior expedition experience, did I have the mental resilience to manage nutrition and handle possible illness over weeks of paddling? I was an impatient, poorly equipped novice with no self-rescue technique. I was my own worst liability - the perfect candidate for disaster."

Link here to subscribe or purchase current issue (#66). Thanks to Chris Bickford for photos... see more of his work at www.chrisbickford.com 

My beloved Washington Canoe Club, a DC historic landmark, recently interviewed me for a member profile. Thanks to Liz Pennisi for the writing.

FRIGID POTOMAC, A CHEATER'S WAY TO WILDERNESS

On Ed Rackley's first long-distance sea kayaking adventure, a five-year-old saved his life. A relative novice, he'd gotten bored of paddling on Washington, D.C.'s rivers, so in November 2010 headed to the Outer Banks, by boat. "I didn't know how to roll, to deal with a tail wind or even surf my boat," he recalls. "But I felt you've got to do it to learn it." His naïveté caught up with him as he was trying to cross over to the intracoastal waterway right where the James, Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers meet off Newport News, Virginia. There the water was a turbulent mixing bowl much worse than the Potomac and Anacostia junction on a windy Fourth of July afternoon.

Read the rest here.

photo @ Archie Jan Bloch