One day I was watching trumpeter saws and ringnecked ducks feeding and resting on Shagawa River. The next day’s drive across Wisconsin from northwest to southeast occurred through good weather.
Rudabaga Paddlesports is located in Madison, and that business conducts Canoecopia each spring attracting presenters, exhibits, tablers, and thousands of visitors for the World’s Largest Paddlesports Expo at Alliant Energy Convention Center on a March weekend each year.
Many businesses and presenters travel from Ely, the Midwest, Ontario and many other locations across the country. The arrivals and setups occur throughout Thursday and Friday morning. The event opens on Friday afternoon, and the staff greet guests who begin exploring to find their areas of interest.
It’s March and another year with all that brings. Some new speakers, new exhibitors, new merchandise and experiences promoted and sold, and this year brought weather challenges. High winds on Thursday and Friday morning made it difficult to get there and to unload and set up displays.
One person coming from Petoskey, MI was planning to cross Mackinac Bridge and travel down to Madison. It turned out, that the bridge was closed due to the weather and he had to drive all the way down and around Lake Michigan through Chicago to reach Madison.
Saturday was heavily attended without precipitation, skies cleared, and forecasts suggested potential strong winds and blizzard conditions ahead for Sunday. Saturday was a good day to visit all the people in their booths from Ely. It became evident that you could find out what was going on in Ely by going to Canoecopia. Some businesses from around the Vermilion Range, Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness and North Shore attend each year. The Wintergreen owners were attending for the first time, and like Spirit of the Wilderness, their booths were staffed with family members.
The format provided opportunities for some to work at a booth and also be on the schedule to conduct some of the over 100 presentations and demonstrations available for free under the event admission fee.
You could get in a lot of steps during the weekend and meet new people, find new resources, and be surprised by encounters, like the two former students of Vermilion Community College that shared their stories about marriage, families, retirement, and college memories.
Groups from Save the Boundary Waters, Friends of the Boundary Waters, Northern Tier High Adventure Base, Wilderness Inquiry, and many non-profit organizations and campaigns were presenting information and upcoming events and opportunities.
But it all had to end, and Sunday’s weather conditions resulted in reduced numbers of visitors before closure, and everything needed to be moved out of the convention center. Everything was cleared out before midnight.
The blizzard had arrived by midevening some had left early for safe travel. The result for many people was another night spent in Wisconsin. Some people didn’t return until Tuesday when roads were in better condition. There were 16 semis counted being pulled out of the snow and back on the highway at various places on Highway 90/94 between Madison and Eau Claire on Tuesday.
Back to Ely, driving was good, and lakes are still covered with snow and ice. The swans are still on Shagawa River awaiting open water in their nesting locations.
Ring-necked Duck drake
