Dana, Not cold yet. Northern CA is having an unusual heat wave. We've set heat records all around the Bay. I took off Monday to paddle and the temperatures reached 72 degrees around Redwood City. I got a sunburn on my shoulders in December! What a way to greet the coming of winter. Every city nearby broke heat records, some 100 years old. The tides were near their annual highs. I was able to cover 12 NM and easily cruise through some areas that are restricted to very high tides. Water nearly covered Greco Island, a place with a curious mix of Wildlife Sanctuary and State Duck Hunting Preserve. Go figure. The only nervous time of the day was when I heard a couple of shotgun blasts, far off. Why didn't I paint my boat safety orange? As the water receded from the island, the sound of thousands of tiny waterfalls tinkling onto sand and shell beaches was reminiscent of rainfall. The day was completely without clouds. As I paddled down Redwood Creek (not a creek anymore at all but a dredged deepwater quarter mile wide shipping channel and port) Mount Diablo was in plain view. The Red Hills, Mission Hills and Mount Hamilton surrounded the southern and eastern views on the first half of the trip; Mount San Bruno and Mount Tam and the Hoover Tower stood out plainly on my return. Most of the migratory birds have departed now and only some egrets and a few variety of gulls kept watch over me. The day was amazingly calm and relaxed. I'm more relaxed, too, with a recent recovery and rescue session behind me. Even the traffic on the Dumbarton Bridge a mile ahead of me at my lunch spot seemed calm on this easy day. A quick stop alongside a park for a potty break and an extended family stops to stare at the strange looking fellow getting back into the little wood boat. Mouths agape, they did not respond to my friendly greeting. A mild wind from the south, warm, and at most a force 2, conspired with the start of the ebb tide to push me back toward the dock and return me to the real world of traffic, work, and Christmas shopping. jerry. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 23 1999 - 14:00:45 PST
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