Newport Lake: Swordsmanship on the Dam

7 November 2014

Lake #1  Newport Lake, Mill Creek Park, Youngstown

Today is D-Day for my BHAG.  The 365 day countdown clock begins now.  Right away I am faced with having to give something up to stay focused on my goal.  Where I attend Zumba classes, CenturyBody (aka ZumbaColumbus), is having its five year anniversary bash this weekend and I am having to miss it in order to keep to my kayaking schedule.  I have the goal to be under 100 lakes to kayak by the time Ohio's winter weather shuts me down.  I am also being tested on my resolve to stick with this project as it is 20 degrees fahrenheit outside--remember up to this point I have been a t-shirt and shorts kayaker.

On the way to Newport Lake, I stopped at Duffy's Restaurant & Grill in Akron for lunch.  I highly recommend it if you are in the neighborhood.  I asked the waitress what she considered their lunch speciality and she recommended the deep fried sauerkraut balls for an appetizer and the reuben grill sandwich.  I am not a big sauerkraut fan.  I have married into a German family so I have it every New Year's Day for good luck and that has been enough for me.  I decided that in the spirit of my BHAG adventure to go with the waitress's suggestions.

Deep Fried Sauerkraut Balls

Adventurous and a Bit Crazy BHAG Blogger 

The crazy photo of me was prior to my taking a bite.  Wow, they were SO GOOD.  The reuben was fantastic.  I am going to try to make my own sauerkraut balls for New Year's Day this year.

I am seeing that this BHAG is going to have a bigger impact on my life than I had anticipated.  I am going to see many parts of Ohio that I would not otherwise venture to, try new foods, and have experiences that I can not even anticipate at the moment.  I had never been to Youngstown before today.  In my mind I just thought of it as part of the Rust Belt and had no reason to visit.

I came up with my BHAG in part to distract me from my monumental half of a century birthday.  I was feeling old and thinking that my time for fun and adventures was over.  It seems fitting that on day one of my BHAG I met two very positive gentlemen who referred to me as "young" and told me that I had all kinds of time left for adventure.  Newport Lake is located within Mill Creek Park which also contains Lanterman's Mill, a covered bridge, and hiking and biking trails.  Not many people were around as it was only 20 degrees out.  I had parked to take photographs of the mill and bridge when a jogger and cyclist (both older than me) stopped to chat with me about kayaking.  When I told them about my BHAG and how I wished I could visit the park when it was warmer they both said that I had plenty of time left for adventures and that I would make it back.  This chance encounter seems like a fortuitous beginning to my wonderful journey.

Lanterman"s Mill

Covered Bridge (that really is its name)

Sluice (Channel) for Lanterman's Mill

Gorge Trail Boardwalk

Lanterman's Mill was built in 1846 and restored in 1985.  It is unique in that it operates today as it did in the 1800s, grinding corn, wheat, and buckwheat.  The covered bridge is a replica of the one located there in the 1800s when farmers used it to bring their grain to the mill.  It doesn't have a specific name, it is just known as the covered bridge.  Gorge Trail is a two-mile loop along Mill Creek with sandstone outcroppings and beautiful views.

Newport Lake just squeaks in at the 100 acre size with 40 acres of that being wetlands.  Much of the lake is only deep enough for a kayak or canoe.  Access to the lake is via either East or West Newport Drive, both of which are one-way north from Shields Road.  There is a boat launch ramp off East Newport Drive with parking and enough room to turn around a trailer.  Coordinates for the ramp are 41.05980, -80.67396.  There are no facilities available at this location.  

A small marina is located at the boat rental on West Newport Drive near the dam.  Coordinates for the  boathouse is 41.06312, -80.67859.  Restrooms are available at the Boathouse during warm weather.  Rentals of kayaks, canoes, and paddle boats are available from Memorial day weekend through Labor day.  Boating is permitted on the lake with your own boats from March 1st to November 30th.  

So now to the actual kayaking. Well, not so fast.  It takes a while to get dressed for 20 degree kayaking.  Hypothermia is a real risk.  At these temperatures you have about a 15 minute survival period if you enter the water.  In this cold it would be very unwise to kayak alone so I have dragged my husband along.  I will talk about clothing and gear in later blogs.  I will tell you what has worked and not worked for me.

The name of this blog is Swordsmanship on the Dam.  You may have wondered what in the world that means.  Well, I am going to tell you.  After kayaking the wetlands and most of the lake, we headed over to check out the dam where we watched two swordsmen proceed to have a duel.

  Given the unusual occurrence of seeing a sword fight, I decided to name the duck for Newport Lake Inigo for the fictional character Inigo Montoya from the novel The Princess Bride.  Inigo is a Spanish fencer who has devoted himself to becoming a great swordsman to avenge his father's death.  In the Rob Reiner 1987 film adaptation, the character goes around saying "Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father. Prepare to die."  Strange, I know but it seemed fitting somehow.

Inigo, Newport Lake 

After watching the sword fight it was time to head back to shore and call it a day as daylight was quickly departing.  It was a great start to my BHAG.  No one fell in, no one got hypothermia, and I had FUN!

I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map

The map below contains a pin for each of Ohio's 103 public lakes (that are 100 or more surface acres in size). If you click on the pin it will give you the name and size of the lake.  If the pin is orange then  I haven't kayaked that lake yet for my BHAG.  Once I kayak a lake, the pin for that lake will be changed to green. The two red pins are for lakes that can not be kayaked for this BHAG. Lake White is closed for dam repairs and is not scheduled to reopen until 2018. Lake Medina is impossible to kayak on your own, and questionable with help, due to an extremely long put in from the parking area.

Meet the Lakes and Reservoirs of my BHAG

When I was in the brain storming stage of developing my BHAG, I came up with the great idea of kayaking all the lakes and reservoirs in Ohio.  Great, until I discovered that Ohio actually has about 2,200.  Huh, who would have thought we had that many.  Certainly, not me.  So after much back and forth, and some serious reality check, I decided to limit my scope to Ohio's lakes and reservoirs with public recreation access that are 100 plus surface acres in size.  Below are the lakes in alphabetical order, with lake size by acres, and the county that the lake (or most of the lake) is located in.  Some of the lakes are in multiple counties and Pymatuning Reservoir is also in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Mama Duck - Creating Your Own Fun

Dressed in my yellow paddling jacket and PFD while paddling a yellow kayak, I look like a giant duck.  As a mother it was a natural progression that on the water I came to be known as mama duck.

I decided that for fun I would take a different "baby" rubber duck kayaking with me on each of the lakes and reservoirs during my kayaking BHAG:  I would name each one, date it with the day it kayaked, and the location.  At the end of my BHAG I will have a visible record of my accomplishment of kayaking 106 lakes and reservoirs within a year.  Many people might think that playing with rubber ducks is a pretty silly thing for a 50 year old to be doing.  It makes me smile.  It makes me laugh.  In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway.  You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."  Yeah, yeah, I know she had bigger things in mind than rubber ducks but you get the idea.  This BHAG is to help me rediscover joy.  The ducks make me happy.  End of story.

When shopping for Christmas gifts I saw a large yellow duck and instantly knew that I had to have it.  I had found mama duck.

Prior to the start of this BHAG I had only been a warm weather shorts and t-shirt kayaker.  This BHAG is going to be quite a challenge for me as it is going to require cold weather kayaking in order to complete all the lakes within the 365 day deadline I have set for myself.  The very nature of a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is that it requires a giant step up in your capabilities.  It forces you to dramatically improve because otherwise you won't be able to achieve it.  The only other time that I set a BHAG for myself was when I set the goal of running the 2010 Columbus Marathon.  I can happily state that I achieved that BHAG (even though I probably could have walked the 26.2 miles faster than I ran it).  Here is hoping that this BHAG goes as well.