You know it is going to be an interesting paddle when: 1. You start to top off your air bag and realize it is completely flat which can only be due to a hole you did not know about. 2. You are kneeling next to your kayak when another paddler picks up her kayak, turns toward the launch, and places the bow of her kayak solidly against your head. Maybe surfing and rock gardens are not the only place I should be wearing my helmet. 3. After paddling upstream on the river for a few minutes you realize that: a) you can not see any of the kayakers who left ahead of you and b) you can not see the sweep you was supposed to be right behind you and c) you are not sure if you were supposed to be going upstream or downstream from the launch 4. Around the first bend you see a sunken motor boat sitting right in the middle of the river and a washing machine half sunk along the bank. 5. The snakes sitting on the branches are over 4 ft long. (Maybe they were actually smaller, but they looked at least that big to me). You really know it is going to be interesting when all the above happens on the same paddle. Actually it turned out to be a fun paddle. Got a couple of good snake pictures. Enjoyed the kingfishers and kiskadee flycatchers. Got to talk to kayakers with whom I had not paddled in a while. Got to hide from the 25-30 mph winds that had been keeping me from paddling for the past couple of weeks. My pictures from Sunday Nueces River trip are at http://community.webshots.com/user/mjamja100 Select "Trip of Week" album and look for the pictures labeled "2004-03-28". Be sure and look closely at pictures 2004-03-28 009 and 2004-03-28 010 for the snake. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:37 PDT