The Lorax is tired...

He announced the other day that he "is done with Meetup." He says he will still paddle with me, hike with me, but he is tired of the newbies that show up on our paddles. During the winter he was tired of the young and out of shape hikers that showed up on our hikes. This is the "thing" about Meetup.

If you don't know about Meetup, go find out; especially if you are bored, bike or paddle alone, and wish you had some one to go with. Meetup isn't about dating, or at least it wasn't designed that way. It is about going out in the real world and doing "stuff" with others.

So I have a Meetup group, I am the Organizer, the website is paid for by me and I design most of the outings. This is my third year organizing. I don't mind the newbies at all. Generally, they pay attention and don't show up on tough stuff they shouldn't have gone on in the first place. But once every 3rd or 4th event, we will get someone who didn't read the description all the way, or who just didn't care.

I get that it is a pain in the neck to have to shepherd slow paddlers or hikers. I, myself, have been guilty of showing up on another group's bike ride and been over-matched by the hilly terrain; unprepared. The thing about that ride was there were a few other cyclists who were over baked as well so we were the "red lantern" at the tail end of 40 riders. While I shared my shame with several others, I lived, they lived, the Organizer didn't strangle us because there'd be too many bodies to hide.

My last two events went off great. My friend Kat came out and the three of us paddled the wildlife reserves off Leesylvania State Park two weekends ago. The water was a choppy and filled with big, slapping waves. We had gusts of wind as well. She is a very skilled paddler, and we had a wonderful paddle back in the fingers of marsh land edging the Potomac:

And then Kat, who owns the orange boat in the back ground tried out my boat, in the fore ground:

Mine and Kat's boats on the beach at Leesylvania

   
She didn't enjoy it. The cockpit fits her great but the boat is a tricksy little vixen. My last  sea           kayak, a Necky Eliza, I call my "dragon boat" because it always seemed like she was ready to bite me. It challenged me to rise to a new level as a paddler. I learned to control the boat with my hips and pay much more attention to my body language. I dearly love that boat but its tight cockpit puts pressure on my (old fart) legs, so sadly will part with it soon. I am having a really hard time letting it go. It handles nicely in chop and big water as well as paddling smoothly and tracking cleanly through calm quiet water as well.


  

credit: Kat 2012

Last weekend we paddled the Potomac above the city (WDC). We put in at Algonkian Regional Park. We had paddled past this park numerous times but never put in there before. The boat ramp is wide and shallow, although concrete, which can be tough on boat bottoms. The river is quite filled with non-native flora at this time of year.

We spotted bald eagles, great blue herons, and snowy egrets a plenty. It was a peaceful paddle and we stopped on a pebble beach on an island that has primitive camping spots on it. I snapped the above pic while leaving the island to show the trail through the "sea grass."

We had a brand new paddler show up on his "maiden voyage" with his new boat. This is a good location for a new paddler as the flora keeps the power boats to nearly none and the river is wide and flat here. We all enjoyed ourselves.

So the husband doesn't like Meetup. I still do. Now, if he would just make some outrageous proclamation about it, the whole thing will turn funny. Funny is where it's at!