I'm a 60-year-old retired physicist (one of the pore people -- pissed off, retired early). I live near Deep River, Ontario, which is just east of Algonquin Park and on the Ottawa River, although I'm not on the river. Bought my first canoe in '61, my first (WW) kayak sometime in the early 70's, my first sea kayak, the original Mariner, in '83. Built my first stripper in the mid 70's. Still have all of them. Mostly I paddle the Mariner (on the Ottawa River) or one of my "little boats", light, fast, double-paddle strip canoes that I've developed for wandering around in the local small watercourses. I've mentioned them before on this list. Partly because of developing the double-paddle canoes, I have several canoes and kayaks, twenty if my mental count is correct. (I don't like throwing things away.) Whitewater is not as essential since I retired (no stress to get rid of), but our local WW club paddles on the Petawawa River near here on Wednesdays after work, and I go if the weather's warm enough.. Most of my outings are local day trips, and it is not uncommon for me to be out for the day, paddling, walking, (XC) skiing, or snowshoeing, and not see anyone else all day. A cleared ski trail runs from my house, past our XC club's ski hut (which I am more-or-less in charge of) into Algonquin Park. I have paddled a bit on Lake Superior and Georgian Bay, and in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Maine, Florida, and Louisiana. Right now I'm tired: we just got some fresh snow, and it is unlikely to last long, with rain in the forecast for Thursday. Four of us were practicing (them) or trying to learn (me) telemark technique on a nearby Hydro cut, locally known as the Rolphton Rockies, for a couple of hours this afternoon. Yesterday I went out to the ski hut, lit the wood stove, and continued on another couple of hours, then back to the ski hut, a one-hour break for a cup of hot chocolate and general recuperation, then back to the car: probably 25 km total, about 10 of it breaking trail. Saturday it snowed so I broke the ski trails in my back yard for nearly two hours. Friday was before the new snow, the old snow was heavily metamorphosed from thawing and refreezing, so I snowshoed for much of the day and found a heronry that I hadn't known of before. A few more weeks of this and I should be starting to get fit. Yes, I'll be glad to get back to paddling in the spring, but I'm not suffering withdrawal. Bruce Bruce Winterbon bwinterb_at_intranet.ca http://intranet.ca:80/~bwinterb Prudery is immoral. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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