Sept. 2026 HCKC Newsletter

FROM THE SKIPPER

September 2026 Notes from the Skipper………

It has been a fun paddling season for HCKC with lots of training, river paddles, touring trips and white water trips. I have enjoyed traveling and kayaking in some new destinations this year as well as,  paddling with some of our new members!

There are still some great trips coming up on our calendar. Don’t put away your gear for the winter just yet!

• ·         Land Between the Lakes Oct 8-11
• ·         Rock the Yough Oct 2-4
• ·         West Fork White River Oct 3
• ·         Lake Monroe Overnight Oct 24-25
• ·         Middle Ocoee Oct 23-25

The Election for the Board is coming up in November and we are looking for any HCKC members  interested in running for a position on the Board. Details on Board Member responsibilities have been sent out by the Election Committee. Contact Phyllis Malpas phylm19@gmail.com  or Jan Rugaber shodan5834@yahoo.com by October 6^th to apply.  

If you are not interested in volunteering for the Board, we have the following committees that could use your help! Contact Linda Decker lsdecker2018@gmail.com 

• ·         Membership
• ·         Technology
• ·         Trip Planning
• ·         Events
• ·         Finance

We continue to try to find a local pool so that we can resume our pool sessions this winter. Please contact us if you know of an available location or would like to work on managing pool sessions once a location is secured.

Finally, we hope to see you at the Annual Meeting November 8^th 12:30 – 4:30/5:00. There will be a Swap Meet, Trip Presentations from the Fleets, Pitch-in dinner, Trip Leader Gift Presentations and a short HCKC Business Meeting. Register on the HCKC Website.

Linda Decker

HCKC Skipper

UPCOMING TRIPS & EVENTS

KEEP AN EYE ON OUR CALENDAR FOR UPCOMING EVENTS THAT MAY BE ADDED AT SHORT NOTICE.  THERE WILL GENERALLY ALSO BE AN EMAIL ANNOUNCEMENT

Annual Meeting Nov. 8

• Location: Forest Park Inn, Noblesville IN

• Address: 701 Cicero Rd. Noblesville IN

• Start Time: 12:30...ends 4:30/5:00

Agenda

•  12:30--1:15pm:   Sign in;  Place swap meet items; (consider bringing photos of boats for sale with all pertinent information), social time; snacks/coffee

•  1:15--2:00:  Skipper's welcome, followed by fleet presentations

•   2:00--2:25:  Trip leaders' recognition

•    2:25--2:40: Break to review swap meet items

•    2:40--3:15: Business Meeting with the election and announcement of the new board  

•    3:15--3:30--Surprise! (sorry, no clowns or exotic dancers involved)

•    3:30--3:40--Dinner buffet table is set 

•    3:40--4:30--Dinner, Social, & final swap meet haggling

•    4:30--? Clean up by volunteers...Thank you!

***HCKC will provide the main course. Members are asked to bring a side dish: vegetable, starch, salad type, dessert. To avoid considerable duplication, registrants will be contacted 10 days before the event with a recommended contribution. Non-alcoholic beverages will be available.

Remember to vote for the board check email for ballots 2 weeks prior to event 

Thanks to all members for contributing to the successful outcome of this event.... For questions, contact: marianndvs@gmail.com 

WHITEWATER TRIPS

ROCK THE YOUGH IS BACK !!! Oct. 2-4

One of the club's most popular events. Rock the Yough pitch-in party and paddling event is back with a twist as it will be the fall weekend of October 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2026. This isn't just for whitewater – it’s a trip for everyone!

Middle Ocoee WW Trip Oct. 23-25

Trip Sponsor John Gates

John will be leading a Middle Ocoee trip on 24 – 25 Oct 2026. He will be down at ORE and will be paddling the Middle Ocoee both days.

CANOE & KAYAK TRIP

West Fork White River: Anderson to Perkinsville Oct. 3

Trip Sponsor Mariann Davis

COMBINED CANOE & KAYAK / SEA KAYAK TRIP 

Land Between the Lakes Oct. 8 - 11

Sponsors Jan Rugaber & Judy Thompson

SEA KAYAK TRIP

SK: Lake Monroe Overnight Oct. 24-25

Trip Sponsor Jeff Stejskal

THIS is a LEVEL 2 HCKC Sea Kayaking Trip (with possible Level 3 conditions) Please review trip level chart before signing up. Trip Level Guide 1-2021.docx  

Join us for an overnight paddling trip on Lake Monroe.   Lake Monroe lets us camp from our boats along the shore in Deam Wilderness. This is our annual fall pilgrimage and we will camp out on the peninsula across from Cutright Public Access Site.    

PAST TRIPS

Tippecanoe River - Sept. 19

Tippecanoe River from Tippecanoe River Bridge to Haschel PAS, combined IYAK & HCKC trip. This is a nice peaceful quiet 12 and a half mile run with a good portion of it running through Tippecanoe River State Park so there's a few places to take out at the park ramps. The access at the put in at the train bridge is a little steep going down to the bottom but not too bad it's a old road and the shuttle is only about 10 minutes one way.

Trip Sponsor Warren Rosenthal  

Whitewater River Metamora to Brookville Sept. 26

Great day on the water. Perfect weather; there were 7 people - 3 from HCKC, 2 from IYAK and Warren & Stephanie from both. They did 12.5 miles 4.5 hrs several stops for snacks & rock hounding. Few scrapes even though it showed 935cfs on the Alpine gauge. All ate at El Reparo in Brookville after. Paddlers saw lots of Eagles and juveniles and Mergansers.

Trip Sponsor Warren Rosenthal

QAJAQ TC (Training Camp)

August 27 - 30, 2026

It was another hugely successful Training Camp! We sold out in just over 48 hours. There was a waiting list of 10-12 people, but all got in well before camp began.

HCKC was well represented again this year. Camp is capped at a total of 65, which includes 15 mentors. There were 27 HCKC members that attended camp this year! Well done!

A big “Thank You” to all the HCKC members that once again made Qajaq TC so successful. We greatly appreciate your participation and assistance. Hopefully you enjoyed yourself, learned something new, and made some new friends.

All HCKC attendees shared the club spirit all through camp by not only assisting but by making camp feel inclusive and letting no one be a stranger. The following are just some of the talented and generous members that made it memorable:

• ·         Patti Von Niessen – Stained glass artisan, Greeter/Check-in, Coffee Crew
• ·         Bob Waddell – Parking, Signage, Camp Breakdown, Knitter extraordinaire
• ·         Susan Nord – Seamstress/Quilter and up-cycler extraordinaire (changing robes, pillows, carry bags), Beer Flight/beer tasting, Auction/Raffle setup/breakdown
• ·         David Nord – Mentor, Beer Flight/beer tasting
• ·         Linda Decker – Medical, Camp Host, Camp Prep, Auction/Raffle setup/breakdown
• ·         Jim Heichelbech – Coffee Czar, Social Ambassador
• ·         Todd Nissen – Dockmaster, Camp Host, Raffle Ticket Sales, Social Ambassador, Gear Wrangler
• ·         Rob & Kathy Blumer – Medical, Raffle Ticket Sales
• ·         Kyle Wills – Mentor, T-shirts
• ·         Kay Riley – Planning Committee
• ·         Lisa Yoder – Planning Committee – Photographer/Videographer
• ·         Coleen McFarland – Photographer

A special shout out to Kyle Wills, mentor - on/in water and on the Greenland ropes. Kyle recently participated in the Greenland National Kayaking Championships in Nuuk, Greenland as a member of the Qajaq USA Team. He won several gold medals, participating in events including rope exercises, rolling and harpoon. Check out the videos on the Dubcast with Dubside --

https://youtu.be/yIuK2b_P9do?si=v7LeHqi2-c3Vpg9Y

http://www.youtube.com/@DubcastwithDubside

Keep an eye on the Qajaq TC website and FB page for the dates for 2027 – https://qajaqtc.org/

Thanks again for all of your assistance! I hope to see you all there next year!

Cheers!

Tony Pascuzzi

HCKC attendee photo -

Sea Kayak Trip Report:  North Channel Lake Huron, Spanish, Ontario Aug 30-Sept 4, 2026

Trip Leaders: David Nord, Assisted by Linda Decker & Jim Heichelbech

The North Channel of Lake Huron may just be the most underrated paddling destination on the Great Lakes. This hidden gem is a 7 hour drive from Detroit into Ontario and makes up the northern shoreline of Lake Huron:

East of Sault Ste Marie, north of Manitoulin Island, and west of Killarney Provincial Park.

Seven intrepid HCKC paddlers ventured out for a 4 night backcountry basecamp trip to explore the best of this beautiful region. It is worth a special note that the biggest attraction in this region, the smooth, clean granite, is also the biggest hazard. This rock is frictionless below the surface, and I highly recommend felt soled shoes. The felt grips a little bit and helps mitigate the fall risk, but nothing can eliminate it.

We met and camped in nearby Chutes Provincial Park on Sunday night, Sept 30. Chutes is a great place to settle in after a long drive and set us up to get an early start on the backcountry portion of the trip on Monday morning.

On Monday morning we left Chutes and drove 20 minutes to our launch location, the Spanish Municipal Marina. The marina has a lot to offer for very nominal fees, including secure parking, showers, laundry, and the boat ramp. We unloaded and packed the kayaks, parked our vehicles, paid the harbormaster, and hit the water at about 8:30am. Our destination was about 11.5 miles east, the SW corner of Fox Island. The winds were easterly, 10kn, gusting to 15kn with rain likely in the afternoon.  We were sheltered for the first third of the journey until we passed through Little Detroit, a narrow, manmade channel connecting the Whaleback channel to the west with the McBean Channel on the east. As expected, we hit some 1 foot chop and felt the headwind slow us down as soon as we passed through the strait. We paddled about 1 mile south along Aird Island from Little Detroit with beam seas so that we could take advantage of the chain of islands connecting Aird to Eagle. We island hopped our way east with a lunch stop on the westerly side of Crooks Island. We then battled the headwinds all the way up the McBean Channel until we crossed to the tiny shortcut into serene Fox Harbor to look for a spot to set up camp. The forecasted rain hit just as we landed and began setting up camp. The good news was that the rain let up in the evening and didn’t return for the rest of the trip. The bad news was that rain makes the smooth granite slick and hazardous.

The next morning, Tuesday, we woke up to cloudy skies but glassy calm water. We paddled a loop around North and South Benjamin Islands, my absolute favorites, and out around Hook and then back to camp. The Benjamins are made up of beautiful 2-billion-year-old, undulating, glacially smoothed, pink granite. Hook Island may look unimpressive, but landing on the flat limestone shoreline will change your mind when you look down. The sun came out in the evening and we enjoyed the first of multiple sunsets from our basecamp on Fox.

Wednesday morning the clouds returned. The forecast was for a westerly wind and slight chance of rain. We chose to circumnavigate our base camp Island, Fox Island. The westerly end of Fox shares the same stunning pink granite as the Benjamins, the easterly end transitions to gneiss and migmatite. We traced the 11 mile shoreline, following every beautiful nook and cranny and only battled the wind on the westerly end.  We played in the waves a bit along the rocks before returning to camp. By the time we landed the sunshine returned. Several of us took a swim, and we all enjoyed yet another fantastic sunset.

Thursday was a bluebird day, full of sunshine and light winds. We decided to paddle around Croker Island, Through the Boars, Sows and Pigs, and then back north along the Benjamins on the return to camp. We had lunch at my favorite spot on a hilltop at the south end of South Benjamin with a fantastic view.

On Friday we packed up our camp in the sunshine, shared stories of the crickets that adopted each of our tents, and paddled back to the Spanish Municipal Marina. We helped each other load boats and then thoroughly enjoyed the hot showers at the marina.

Sea Kayak Trip Report: Tip of the Thumb, Michigan Sept 24-26, 2026

Trip Leaders: David & Susan Nord

If you’ve never paddled the tip of Michigan’s "Thumb," you’re missing out on one of the Lower Peninsula’s nicer coastal destinations. Port Crescent State Park sits on Lake Huron, offering a mix of wide sandy beaches, historic light stations, and low sandstone cliffs. Ten HCKC paddlers headed up for a long weekend, and Lake Huron rolled out the red carpet: sunshine, light winds, and mostly clear skies from start to finish.

We kicked off the weekend on Thursday evening with a potluck and happy hour at the campground after everyone arrived and discussed our paddling options.

Friday was our big coastal highlights day. We drove about five miles into Port Austin to launch for a trip out to the Port Austin Reef Light, an iconic 1899 offshore light station sitting roughly two and a half miles out in Lake Huron. From there, we paddled along the shore to visit the famous Turnip Rock and the sea caves and low sandstone cliffs near Pointe Aux Barques. The cliffs here are composed of ~350-million-year-old Marshall Sandstone—a stone so tough it was historically quarried to make grindstones. Around the region you can often see old, circular grindstones built right into local walls, fences, and foundations in surprisingly creative ways!

Saturday brought a fun mix of paddling and town exploration. We launched from the campground beach and paddled east into Port Austin. A light easterly wind created just enough wave action that we had to detour well offshore to avoid getting side-surfed on the shallow, rocky reefs that line the coast. After landing in Port Austin, we changed into street shoes and headed into town for the weekly Harvest Festival Market. While Port Austin is a quiet resort town that mostly winds down after Labor Day, Saturday mornings (10 AM to 2 PM) are still active. We spent a couple of hours browsing craft vendors and fueling up on fresh fruit, hot soups, and local baked goods. Geared back up, we took an offshore route on the paddle back to the park, avoiding the quartering seas where they broke over the unforgiving rocky bottom.

By Sunday morning, most of the group was packing up for the drive home, but some squeezed in one last morning on the water or a short walk along the beach. Betsy and Leslie launched from the campground beach to explore the mouth and narrow channel of the nearby Pinnebog River—a scenic, sheltered contrast to the big open lake.

It was a fantastic weekend of Great Lakes sea kayaking, great company, and local flavor!

NEW MEMBERS

We welcome our new HCKC members. We hope you will take advantage of the many opportunities you have as a member!

New Members since 8/11

Shannon L.

Ellen Kay S.

Travis T.

Kole D.

Scott D.

Kyle O.

Glenn H.

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