Yes I had a "low paddling year". Note I said low rather than slow. When I did paddle I made the miles but most of the time I stayed ashore. The reason: RAIN, COLD & WIND! Up here in Southeast Alaksa we are headed for a record year for rain (remember this area is considered a temporate rain forest in the first place !) . If the trends contuinue we will see over 300 days of rain. In October it rained every day for a daily average of .81 inches. Everyone up here is lamenting that we did not have a summer due to colder and wetter conditions than normal. Officially it was the coolest summer in almost 50 years. In my pastoral counselijg I am seekig the effect this is having on peoples state of mind. A lot of times when I was able to get a day off the temperatures were in the upper 40's to low 50's the rain was coming down heavy and the winds were kicking. Not much fun. Also the low hanging clouds dropped visibility to the point that you could not see much of anything Some of the through paddlers (Seattle to Skagway) got tired of being stuck wet and cold in camp and pulled up short and went home for a season hoping next summer holds better weather. As I noted in my last story on Paddlewise I was forced back to safe shelter on my big trip this summer due to a gale that scramed throuhg Soputhest Alaska in July. (35 knot winds with 45 knot gust.) No place for kayak. I holed up in a Forest Service cabin then went home and scrambled together two smaller trips. By the way I should finish up a new trip story in the next couple days and post it soon. Hopefully next summer will prove better weather for all of us who paddle up here. take care and try to get out paddling when you can Bob *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Nov 20 2008 - 13:43:20 PST
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