jaegs

At this moment I find myself upside down staring at the top of the whitewater kayak I’ve been paddling for the past two days. I’m at Bear Paw Outdoor Adventure Resort in Northern Wisconsin taking their entry-level whitewater course and today Jake, our instructor, is teaching us the C-to-C rolling technique.  I’m a bit disoriented but can make out streaks of sunlight filled with green and brown sediment floating through the water.  It looks nice, kind of like space dust and I’d like to take a minute to admire it but my lungs are interrupting and reminding me that they’d appreciate it if I’d get back to the surface, immediately. 

The C-to-C rolling technique is the most commonly taught roll to newcomers. It includes a torso rotation along the side of the kayak, placing the paddle at a right angle to the kayak and reaching the blade to the surface of the water, the first C.  Then with one fluid movement you sweep the paddle downward, snap the hips to position the kayak underneath you and lean your head towards the side you’re coming up out of the water on, the second C.  Seems pretty basic but that doesn’t diminish the fact that I’ve tried it twice and still find myself knowing exactly how a fish going belly up sees the world. 

Seeing things turned upside down is nothing new at Bear Paw.  It was a little over a year ago on Thursday, June 7^th, 2007 that things changed forever for Jamee Peters, Scott Barry and Craig Knapp, all co-owners of the kayaking, mountain-biking and skiing resort located four hours north of Milwaukee on hwy 55.   The day started like a lot of other days.  Paddlers were expected for the weekend and the kayaks and cabins were being readied.  But at 5:45pm things changed in an instant as an F4 tornado carved a ½ path of destruction through the thick Northwood’s of Wisconsin and directly through Bear Paw.

The destruction that followed was complete and without regard for people or property.  The landscape had been transformed from a heavily wooded resort with secluded cabins, campsites and a few storage buildings to a mass of twisted and splintered wood and earth.  The remnants of the destruction are still obvious a year later.  A massive debris pile just south of the resort shows what a year’s worth of hard work clearing the resorts land looks like.  More impressive is a clearly carved swatch of open land that leads your eye westward.  As I walked the half-mile wide trail that nature carved, I can only image what it must have been like to be in the cross hairs of one of nature’s most powerful phenomena.  “It is an amazing yet terrifying experience to be in an F4 tornado. It was like being in a void, time seemed slow yet fast.  I was very hysterical after the event, because I feared that others on the property did not survive”, said Jamee. 

To Jamee’s relief no one was seriously injured but Bear Paw’s future wasn’t as lucky.  “We took the entire summer to decide if we would rebuild.  We really didn’t want to initially.  It was a very difficult decision but having Scott come in as a business partner, was a key to continuing.  The community was also overwhelmingly supportive too, I love living here, the people and neighbors are fantastic,” recalls Jamee.

Once the decision was made to rebuild the next question was how.  Then a customer, turned good friend, Dave Tronnier, decided there should be a music festival to raise money and help get Bear Paw back on its feet. “I live five hours away in Southern Minnesota and was totally bummed.  I love my friends and needed to do something to help them so we set the stage, we lit the lights and we rocked”, says Dave.  “We were certainly surprised and moved by the turnout, a few hundred people showed up to help clean up”, says Scott.  Bearstock, as its called, now runs every Labor Day Weekend and has turned into a celebration for Bear Paw’s customers, friends and community.  “This year Dave is promoting it again, but it is not a benefit, just a great weekend to get outdoors, hear some good music and end the summer with some boating”, says Jamee. 

As the cleanup progressed, Scott noticed something. While the F4 tornado destroyed six buildings and most of the mature trees that had filled the property, there still stood a lone White Pine.   It had been stripped of its needles and most of its small limbs but it still stood in defiant beauty.  “I looked at all the damaged kayaks and knew they had to go up there”, says Scott.  After sitting Jamee down and discussing it over a few beers, Scott had his kayak tree.   This fitting memorial is hard to miss as its become somewhat of a tourist destination along Hwy 55 with cars often pulling off the road to take a photo of the 60 ft tree and the dozen or so red, blue, yellow and orange kayaks that now serve as its new foliage. 

Since 1994 Bear Paw has been part of the White Lake community and its 25 acres border the Nicolet-Chequamagon National Forest and isn’t far from the famous Wolf River.  This creates an incredible backdrop for world class hiking, biking, skiing and of course kayaking.  “Our Philosophy has always been that every person has a unique and special definition of what an outdoor experience means to them. It has been our mission to help our guests realize their own personal outdoor experience, whether it is a quiet paddle across a lake to see the eagles nest, or the thrill of navigating the rushing whitewater in a canoe or kayak”, says Jamee. 

Bob Boucher has been paddling since 1973 and runs a traditional kayak-building workshop in Milwaukee.  “What I like about Bear Paw is you can go alone and you’ll meet cool people you can paddle with”, says Bob.  This was obvious as I sat at the bar of the Bear Paw Pub and enjoyed a very good pizza and Summit Pale Ale.  There was a mix of paddlers and locals here on Saturday night and everyone seemed to be on a first name basis.  It didn’t take long until the Wii Guitar Hero came out and I was thoroughly entertained as one brave Wisconsinite after another tackled Slow Ride by Foghat.  I decided to slide out and head back to my tent as the song was changed to Barracuda by Heart, and more importantly, before the guitar made its way to my end of the bar.

I’ve got three choices, as I remain suspended underneath my kayak.  I can take the easy way out, pull the strap on my spray skirt and bail out with my tail between my legs.  I can tap three times on the bottom of the kayak and look for a fellow kayaker to lean on while I gather myself or I can just go for it.   Considering I’ve already done the first two options, I reach my paddle to the surface, pull down sharply on the blade, snap my hips back underneath me and correctly lean my head towards the water.  Before the water can stop dripping from my helmet, I notice the kayak is back underneath me and I instinctively take a large inhale, making my lungs very happy.  I hear Jake yell, “you did it, you rolled your kayak”.  Before I can raise my arms in triumph he follows his congratulations with, “now build on that and make it bombproof, but remember, if you need help just tap three times and reach out”. 

After the tornado of June 7^th, 2007 Bear Paw found itself at a crossroads and reached out to each other and the community for support.  What they got in return was a renewed sense of purpose and the confidence to rebuild.  As Bear Paw continues to heal they do so with a new vision of what Bear Paw can be.  Jamee closed our interview by saying, “I want to see Bear Paw be a mecca for human powered sports enthusiasts and a conduit for more white water kayakers in the upper Midwest”.  If this past year is any indication of what’s to come for Bear Paw, the forecast calls for bright, sunny skies.