Full Moon Paddle

The name says it all. No, really it doesn't. The rivers continue to rise around here. This spring has been really wet and the rivers are at or over capacity. This has led to the canceling  of some of my paddles. But others have gone off with just my core paddlers, not newbies. Friday night's (Almost) Full Moon Paddle, May 24,  being a good example.

Dusk but the camera was functioning well, and my post-processing wasn't too shabby either

This is the moon, 9:00 pm or so and fully dark, yowza!

Really, this is the moon, just hard to believe, huh?

The river rose at least 6 inches or more during our 11 mile paddle over three hours. It was nice to land and stretch at the park down river but that made for a heck of a workout going up river against the briskly moving current.  And while there was a steady 10 mile an hour wind , there were also 25-30 miles gusts that would just swoop in on us and then vanish. My neck was sore the next morning.

Moving along, I note when I blogged last that I seemed to feel some despair over my apparently poor choice of boats. I've totally gotten over that feeling. It lasted maybe a day. It was like buyer's remorse, something I've never actually experienced so I am just guessing here. Anyway, when I paddled that boat the next time the feeling that I had bought the wrong boat had completely evaporated. This was probably due to the fact that I was out with a relatively fast paddling crowd and the Solstice kept me from falling miles behind.

She's a long skinny tricky vixen

Truthfully I don't really enjoy speeding along. I like to take my time, photographing wildlife and just soaking up the scenery. Everything is prettier from the water. It's just a fact of paddling life. So, the fact is I LIKE to paddle slow. Weird, huh? Rather than being concerned with how twitchy my Solstice is in rough water I think I should be more concerned with the fact that my paddling companions are a bunch of speed-addicted gorilla-armed freaks.

I mean, seriously, what's the hurry?? I even created a little niche club for the soak-it-all-in crowd. But the only paddlers I get regularly are the hairless gorillas. Oh, there are some ladies too, but mostly they are also speed freaks, just less overly muscle bound and testosterone laden.

So I deliberately scheduled a leisure paddle for Friday morning. I will report back on the topic of speed. Of course, from what I can see I only have myself and two other paddlers so may not have much to report on after all.

Catching up

So I guess keeping up with a blog isn't as easy as I supposed it would be. I have less trouble keeping up with my tumblr blog as it contains mainly just photos and very few words. That blog is really dedicated to art and so I tend to only post stuff I have just made or good pictures I've taken.

Let's see, last time I was here I talked about a bike ride. Since then I have paddled a bunch. The water has warmed up nicely and I am able to sit in my boat comfortably for about two hours at a time. At about the two hour mark I start needing a stretch. After a little stretching and walking around I can paddle some more. But I'm afraid the days of sitting in my boat for hours on end might be drawing to a close. As I said in an email to a kayak instructor I have great respect for, "Sucks getting old. Youth is wasted on the young. And one last cliche, if only I'd known then what I know now I would have done it all differently". To which he replied, in kind with cliche, "fight the good fight, never surrender."

Words to live by sir.

Some pictures. Work, play, love:

Jojo Bob, our office mate, creating a work stoppage allowing me to stretch and laugh

gathering for a Full Moon Paddle 4-26-13

Pulling away from Bull Run Marina as dusk falls

Taking photos with available light from a moving kayak  isn't ever easy 

Just as the moon clears the tree line

Happy Hour Paddle 4-24-13

Sculls everywhere, river right river left...5-3-13

Becky's fabulous new (to her) boat 5-3-13

5-5-13 Paddlers at Jug Bay on the Patuxent

I always love wandering back into the log jams and strainers of the western branch of the Pax

Going just a little bit further

Our furry "love children." Such it is with empty-nesters in our country. Work, play, and love.

Holiday weekend paddles

My paddling life might be killing my hip but that won't keep me off the water!

8/31/12 Did a full moon paddle from Bull Run Marina. The Marina is a park service site but one has to buy a key to it every year. Luckily for us our friend Scott has one so a group of us dropped in about an hour before moonrise and paddle down river on the Occoquan Reservoir. The moon came up, stunning. Then we paddled back in the pitch darkness, an adventure all on its own. No photo I took did it justice:

Our little group

Kat with the glow lights

Scott in the dark

Saturday took a day off paddling, my flipping hip and lower back are killing me! Ack! Better not keep me out of my boat.

Sunday 9-2-12, put in at Fountainhead Regional on the Occoquan again with the woman buying my Eliza. Took her out for three hours to make sure the boat would fit her needs. Money traded hands and I, somewhat sadly, watched my boat drive away on her truck after the paddle.

The boat is a good fit for her

By design we ran into one of the clubs we paddle with:

My three favorite paddlers from the left Scott, Kat, and the Lorax

We first went down river and then up, passing Fountainhead. Then we ran into a sight we don't often see amongst kayakers:

The dog's person says the dog loves riding on her boat. :-)

For whatever reason our paddle was turned around here as we wasted a bit of time chatting with the two ladies with the dog. We were in a hurry to catch the rest of the club over at Ledo's Pizza so we beat paddles back to Fountainhead.

Lunch was great and I got to see paddlers off the the water I had never gotten the chance to really talk to. What a great day!

Labor Day found me laid up with a bag of ice. I told my husband "I think my paddling season is over until the docs do something about this hip." But I don't think that has stuck, after a weekend off paddling I am now planning a trip this weekend after all. Wish me luck!