During Jane's short stay, someone came up with the wild idea to run the canoes down the Cannon River.  My mother was reluctantly interested, Jane thought it was a fun idea, and I needed to do some maintenance on a few geocaches I have placed on the river.  Chad happen to have the day off and was interested in joining us too.  Overall, eight of us headed to the Cannon Falls canoe landing.  It was myself and four year old Laura, Jane and son Devon, Chad and two sons Leo and Dominic, and our mother, Norvina.  Perfect, two trucks, two canoes, six paddles, and eight thrill seekers.

It happened to be pretty late in the canoe season but this was the first time out this year for both Chad and myself.  I know Jane has canoed in the past and Mom has never been in a canoe and was really nervous.  The river is about 2' low at the moment and aside from a few shallow spots, was running nice and tame.  We canoed from Cannon Falls down to Miesville Ravine, which is about 6.5 river miles and usually takes about three hours to paddle.  We were able to stop and manage my five geocaches on the river and placed two new caches. 

This photograph was taken on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008.  I was in pursuit of my 2000th geocache find in False Cape State Park, located along the Atlantic coast in Virginia.  Getting to the geocache involved a four and a half mile hike on the sand dunes in the hot sun.  An adventure that sounds a lot easier than it actually was.

Today we made the trek out to Taconite Island.  I was able to convince my wife Nene, our two oldest children Molly and Anna, and good friend Ryan, that they would enjoy the adventure.  Friends Tom and Sheila agreed to stay back to watch Laura and Matthew.  In spite of Nene wearing her Birkenstock sandals when she should have been wearing laced up sneakers, we experienced no issues and everyone had a great old time.

This small island on Lake Superior is located just south of Silver Bay, out in front of the Silver Bay Marina.  You can actually get to the island on foot but a few obstacles stand in the way.  You first need to clamor across the one third mile long breaker built of automobile sized boulders.  Once you arrive at the island, you must ascend up a 12' high cliff to actually step foot on the island.  I made the daring climb to the top with no issues.  But since I worried about the family, the rest of them climbed up the rope ladder I had brought along.  We were able to enjoy the views and even found the geocache that resides on the other end of the island.

Enjoy the photographs (click thumbnails for larger view)..

2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Getting the little ones atop Taconite Island.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Bart setting up the rope ladder.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Nene ascends to the top.
2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN A view from Taconite Island.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Checking out the geocache.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN A beautiful gang of adventurers.