This post is long overdue. I've been busy with landscaping and outrigger paddling, neither of which are blog worthy, although I'd like to brag about the landscaping. Maybe another post ... when it's finished. We did have a little adventure a few weeks ago. I wasn't going to post about it for fear of embarrassing my friends, but they tell me it's ok. We had a little rescue on the Bay. Nothing major just an overturned kayak, a little hypothermia, and all the rescue teams storming the beach to get to the injured party. Now that it's over we can laugh about it. But at the time it was kind of scary.



It was your typical kayak accident. It was a perfect day. Calm winds, no clouds, highs in the 70's. Then the weather changed rapidly. The wind picked up and started tossing the kayaks around like toys in a tub.

Ok. That's a little melodramatic. Here's what happened. Pam, Ursula, Ruth and I were spending the weekend at my friend, Muffy's, beach house. Pam brought her kayak but for whatever reason I didn't bring mine. Muffy had three kayaks at the beach house. So we had four kayaks and five women. I decided to hang out on the beach while the four of them went for a short paddle. Ursula and Ruth don't kayak much so I thought this would be a great way to introduce them to the sport. It almost worked.



They launched in clear skies and calm seas. I took photos of the launch then headed down the beach to photograph the sea grass. They paddled down a few miles then decided to take a break on the beach. This is the beginning of the spawning season for the horseshoe crabs so the water close to shore was swarming with them. They took lots of photos of the crabs. Then walked around the beach having fun. A half hour passed. It was time to get back so they launched back into the Bay.



But the wind was picking up every so slightly. Then it picked up more. By the time they were all launched the wind was gusting over 25 mph (estimated). The sea was forming whitecaps and huge swells started to overcome the kayaks. Pam got hit by a beam wave ... and went over. She popped the spray skirt and swam right up. But the kayak was out of control. The hatches had failed and now they were filled with water. Vainly she tried to flip the kayak back up.

Around this time Muffy came to her rescue. Recognizing that the kayak was lost she told Pam to grab onto the back of her kayak and release her kayak to the sea gods. Reluctantly Pam took the tow. But the water was 55 degrees and she was cold. The waves were breaking over her head pushing her pfd up around her head. Muffy said she was afraid Pam would let go so she yelled back to her to keep talking so she would know she was still there. It was a 1/4 mile to shore.

When they got to shore Pam was shaking all over. She was hypothermic. Fortunately Ruth and Ursula sprang into action and gave Pam their warmer clothes. Then they moved her away from the beach and the blowing wind and buried her in the sand.



Meanwhile ... Muffy ran a 1/2 mile to the road to summon help. The fire department and the department of Natural Resources converged upon the beach.



Rescue over. Muffy managed to talk one of the rescue guys into carting the kayaks back to the beach house. Then they called me. While all this was going on I was pacing the floor of the beach house. I had waited patiently for their return. We had a big dinner planned. When the wind picked up and I saw the whitecaps forming on the Bay I knew they were in trouble. They had also left without their cell phones. It was tough call. Waiting and feeling the impending doom, I broke down and called the coast guard. They had just launch a rescue helicopter when the DNR called the beach house to report that they were rescued.



End of drama. After everyone had returned to the beach house, Ursula fixed us the gourmet seafood bisque she had promised us. We toasted to a glass of wine and made a note to remember the day and be thankful it ended so peacefully.



The next day Muffy decided to stay curled up in the beach house with a good book while the rest of us walked the beach. The horseshoe crabs were still crawling around on the beach by day break.



Some of them were stuck in the sand. We decided to give a few of them a break and carry them back to the sea. After all someone gave us a break the day before.



We walked up the beach till we came to Murderkill River which separate North Bower's Beach from South Bower's Beach. As we were walking up the road we saw an interesting little fish market and decided to stop in. As it turns out the man behind the counter was the mayor. It was a small town. And Pam got to tell the story of her rescue again. More photos HERE.



~Susanita

Shannon and I finally made it to the annual CPA 4th of July fireworks paddle on the Potomac. Shannon had tried to make this paddle two years in a row and never made it down. And last year she and I had plans to carpool down to Jack's boathouse when a huge storm hit DC. Unable to paddle we made dinner at my house with plans to watch a movie. But the electricity went out. We ended up eating dinner by kerosene lantern and staying up late into the night talking. I think that was to be our first kayaking "adventure" ... the one that never happened. So this year we were both determined to make the fireworks paddle.



I decided to bring my new SOF kayak ... the one we've named the SS Isabella. I had been calling her the "Mystery" after the kayak we used for inspiration. But Dave told me we needed a new name. The "Mystery" belongs to Nick Schade. And while our SOF was "inspired" by the Mystery it's really not the same design. Shannon wanted to name her after an inuit name meaning something like arrow, because she thinks the kayak looks like an arrow. But we couldn't find a name with less than 4 syllables. It needed to be simple and easy to remember. So I just started calling her the Isabel. And it fits.

We got to Jack's boathouse around 4 but it took us another hour to get the boats off the car and into the water. I had to talk to anyone who would listen about the SOF and she gets a lot of attention. We saw a lot of the regular Pirates of Georgetown (POG) paddlers: Todd, Bob, Frank, Yvonne, Jen ... but lots of new faces. And I finally got to meet Page who had sent me this neat software that integrates your photos with the maps from the GPS. It's hard to explain, so I suggest you check out his webpage at http://letsgo2sea.com.


The group started launching for the kayak over to Memorial Bridge around eight. My initial plan was to meet up with my friend Gordon who would paddle over from Roosevelt Island from the Virginia side of the Potomac. But he wanted to paddle his canoe, not a kayak and the gunnels on his canoe were old and rotted. So he had been working all afternoon trying to repair the gunnels. But halfway through the repair the battery ran out on the cordless drill and the recharger was at his other house. Some people have so much stuff they have two houses! So he ended up driving to Rosslyn and running down to Jack's ... just in time to see us launch. Then he ran from Jack's to the bridge at Roosevelt Island just in time to see us pass through. So he didn't get to paddle with me but we had several Gordon "sightings". Shannon also caught a glimpse of him on one of the beaches on Roosevelt Island. So that was fun!

After we lost sight of Gordon, Shannon and I continued our herding duties with the kayakers. The primo spot for an on water view of the fireworks is just south of the Memorial Bridge. Being the paparazzi that we are ... we spent most of the time taking photos of each other in silhouette with the fireworks or getting the group in silhouette with the fireworks ... trying to get that great fireworks photo. It never happened. I saw the photo Page posted on the forum and it was definitely better than anything we took. But check it out for yourself. There is a larger than normal photo gallery page for this event because I also included photos from the Isabella first Potomac voyage. Check it out here.

Tomorrow I'm meeting David Shames at Black Hills again to work on rolling and fix the rudder. He wants to move the rudder housing up higher and attach it more securely. Dave Isbell is also working on an electric pump that operates without a switch. It's a very interesting pump. Supposedly it turns on every once in a while and checks for water. If it finds water it pumps, and if it doesn't it shuts itself off. After I told Dave that racers often have to pee in the boat during a long race he told me I needed to get this pump.

-Susanita

fick·le
–adjective
from dictionary.com
1. likely to change, esp. due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable: fickle weather.
2. not constant or loyal in affections: a fickle lover.

I don't know how I would rank as a lover, but lately I'm as fickle as the weather in D.C. I've cancelled on my kayaking partners twice this week. Monday I missed a paddle on the Potomac to see the Cherry Blossoms because Counter Intelligence arrived late at the house to install the new countertops. And today I cancelled out on the first Kent Island Practice Paddle (KIPP-1) because of a little snow, a little cold and more than a little wind.

Sometimes even those of us with the best intentions let down our friends. Friday night I heard hints of a forecast of snow but the weather is so fickle around here I didn't pay much attention. It was almost 80 degrees on Monday. It's hard to imagine that it would be snowing five days later. But this morning I woke up to the dusting of snow you see on my car and the kayak I had loaded the night before. It's actually pretty paddling in the snow and several times this winter I had complained to Marshall (who was leading the trip today) that we hadn't had any good snow paddles. But it's one thing to dream of paddling in the snow and it's another thing to wake up to the stark reality of paddling in frigid water on a frigid day. So the first thing I did after waking up was call Marshall and leave a message on his cell phone. I don't remember how many excuses I came up with. It was early. But less than 10 minutes later my phone rang. Marshall is the proverbial optimist and despite the dire forecast he was sure that I'd have fun if I came.



So I drove to the put-in on Prospect Bay, still a little sleepy and not yet convinced that paddling was a good idea today. As soon as I got out of the car and felt the wind I knew I should have stayed in bed. Out of 18 paddlers who originally signed up for the paddle today the group had dwindled down to a hearty four: Marshall, Todd, Bob and Eric.



I stayed around for the launch and took some photos of the intrepid snow paddlers, then I went back home and started cleaning up the dust from the construction.

-Susanita

This is the city of Annapolis from the water. As you can tell Annapolis is pretty close to sea level and if water levels rise as expected much of Annapolis will be under water. Annapolis is also where Dave, my kayak designer and builder lives. The last two weekends I stopped by Dave's house to see the SOF he's building for me, but this weekend I decided to give him a break and let him get some work done.

It's been along a long winter of painting, renovating, shopping, decorating ... everything but kayaking. But that is all coming to an end. The kitchen will be finished next week and I arranged for my new furniture to be delivered the following week. I have freshly painted walls, a new kitchen, some new furniture, and a new cover on the floor sofa in my loft which doubles as my home theatre. The house is starting to feel more like ... me. I wanted to be finished by April and I'm really close to meeting my goal. So it's time to switch gears, get the drysuit on, and get back on the water.

Saturday I put-in at Truxton Park on Spa Creek. This is part of my overall summer paddling goals. Among other things I want to kayak in the Blackburn Challenge. Notice I didn't say "compete". This is not a casual or recreational race. It's a long, difficult 24 mile race through open water where the conditions can be very rough. Last year one of my paddling partners tried to convince me that I was up to the challenge. Having only competed in a few 10-12 mile races, I knew I wasn't. But this year I'd like to try it. I have no aspirations of even placing in my class. I just want to finish in a decent time and not swim the Atlantic.



So as preparation I'm plotting a kayaking route that will be about 24-25 miles with wind and waves that's not far from my house as a training run. My intended training route is down Spa Creek into the Severn to the Chesapeake Bay, past Thomas Point then up the South River to my friend Jane's house. Ideally I should just paddle past Jane's house and return to Spa Creek, but realistically I'll probably stop if she's home. The waves on the Bay are quite different from the waves on the ocean. My limited experience with paddling on the ocean leaves me with the impression that they tend to be more uniform in direction. On the Bay the waves seem to come at you from all directions, especially when boat traffic is high in the summer. So I figure if I can make a 24 mile paddle on the Bay I should be able to do a 24 mile paddle on the Atlantic ocean. I'm also planning to get in some ocean paddling time as well. Let the season begin.

-Susanita

On Sunday Nov 26 fourteen paddlers met again at Bogles Warf landing for another paddle around Eastern Neck Island. We saw lots of birds. And we saw some very large flocks of white birds which we think were Tundra Swans. But we couldn't kayak close enough to get any really good photos. To read Hank's excellent trip report go to his site.



To see the photo album for this trip go here.

-Susanita

On Saturday, November 18th, I joined about 19 other paddlers for the CPA Fall Eastern Neck Paddle led by Marshall Woodruff. The Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge is located at the confluence of the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay in Kent County, Maryland and is a major feeding and resting place for migratory and wintering waterfowl on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The 2,285 acre refuge is also home to the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel and the threatened southern bald eagle.


Marshall has been organizing kayak trips around the island through the different seasons to see the various types of birds which migrate and nest at the refuge. Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge provides important resting and feeding habitat for migrating and wintering waterfowl each fall and winter. The highlight of the Fall/Winter paddle is usually the majestic Tundra Swan which rests on Eastern Neck Island during its Fall migration from Canada to North Carolina. While we did see a small flock of large white birds which we think were Tundra Swans the real mass migration of thousands of birds has yet to occur. The Refuge keeps a website devoted to the Tundra Swan Watch and toll free number to monitor their Fall Migration progress from Canada to North Carolina. So we're still waiting and watching.



But we had a great paddle. Even though we knew in advance that the Tundra Swans had not reached the Refuge about 20 paddlers showed up for the circumnavigation of the island. The water around the Chesapeake Bay was a lot colder than the water I paddled in last weekend down in North Carolina. For that paddle I wore my neoprene tights and a tank top. For this paddle I obsessed about wearing the drysuit (which if you've figured out by now I don't like) or fuzzy rubber and a drytop. I decided on the latter and started to regret it as the day wore on, the sun started to set and the air turned colder. By the end of the paddle I was clearly chilled. I figured the only way to stay warm was to keep paddling and to paddle fairly fast. So I took off from the group towards the end and paddle a little faster back to the put-in at Bogle's Warf.



Afterwards a group of us headed to a local restaurant for seafood. I caught the last rays of the sun in this photo as it drifted down towards the horizon. And after dinner Chris, Marshall, Bob and I drove to Laura's renovated weekend retreat bungalow about 12 miles from the restaurant. This was a small house she has been renovating ** by herself ** for the past two years. And I can't even get my small house painted. She put me to shame!

-Susanita

In September I attended a CPA organized trip to the Adirondack Lakes in New York. I took over a 100 photos each day ... too many to post here. I started working on a separate blog for the trip but ... kayaking got in the way. It's still not finished and it's progressing slowly. But David Gottlieb has posted photos on his website. My only complaint is that he didn't take enough photos of me!

-Susanita

I paddled up to Quiet Waters tonight with Shannon. The Chesapeake Paddlers Association (CPA) has several midweek paddling groups scattered around the Chesapeake Bay area that they call "Piracies." I like to paddle Wednesday nights with the Pier 7 piracy which launches on the South River. The South River feeds into the Chesapeake Bay so it offers a variety of paddling opportunities from the protected waters of the river to the more exciting choppy waves of the Bay. So Shannon and I carpooled to Pier 7 from Takoma Park. We got to Pier 7 a little early so we missed the group paddles and she wanted some company. I was paddling with my new Bracsa VII paddle. She paddled for a while with my Epic mid-wing just to see what it was like. The Bracsa VII feels very different. I'm not sure I like it yet. It has a more pronounced cup shape and a smaller blade. And it's very unforgiving. Your stroke needs to be perfect or it tends to want to dive under the boat or just flutter uncontrollably. Truly not for casual paddling, but I was only planning to use it for racing anyway.

As we were coming back to the beach for the evening dinner we were greeted by Greg with a very serious looking camera. I think he was taking photos of everyone tonight and we were just lucky enough to get photographed as well. So here's an action shot of me and above is a posed shot of me and Shannon.

My friend Nigel, from KIOCC, and his son Trevor also visited tonight. Nigel came out to demo the Chesapeake Light Craft Pax 20 and to take out Brian's V10. I didn't get to paddle with them, but they stayed for dinner. And Jenny brought her laptop with pictures of the skin-on-frame greenland kayak that she's making from plans. Not a kit! She's making this cookbook style. I'm looking at the dimensions that she sent me now. I don't know ... I know she was just looking for a good rolling boat but the dimensions on this boat look like it's going to be FAST.

-Susanita

On Saturday I visited New York City for the first time and I saw it as few people get to see it ... by kayak. Shannon and I joined Susan, Kathy, Laura and Chris for the annual circumnavigation of Manhatten by kayak which is organized by Jerry Blackstone. To see a map of our route click here.

I decided to paddle the Mirage because Susan had warned me not to bring the surfski. In her earliest email about doing the Manhattan circumnavigation she wrote, "the water is absolutely, totally, utterly, fantastically, DISGUSTING all the way around. I think they found a dead body one year and sightings of dead animals are frequent. BUT don't let that deter you (from bringing the surfski) ... " Hmmm. Well the thought of dangling my legs down in the surfski and perhaps brushing the top of a dead body made it easy for me to choose the Mirage.

Because the Manhattan paddle started at 0800 Saturday morning, we left Friday afternoon and drove to New Jersey for the night. Susan's friend Chris had volunteered the use of his sister's condo as a crash pad and honestly if we hadn't had a place to stay the night before and after the paddle I doubt I would have gone. So ... THANK YOU CHRIS!

The most direct route from DC to New Jersey is I-95. In fact it's almost a straight shot. But both Shannon and I have "issues" with I-95. Years ago I had a head-on collision on I-95 so if given a choice I prefer another route. Shannon dislikes the tolls. So it was an easy decision. We decided to go up I-83 to Harrisburg, PA to I-81 to I-78 to New Jersey. On a map this looks quite ridiculous. But at the time it seemed pretty logical to us. We figured it would be longer distance-wise but quicker and cheaper. And less stressful for me. And if it hadn't been for the traffic around Baltimore, Harrisburg and all the points in between there and New Jersey ... we would have been right!

After a less than restful sleep we all woke up early and headed out to Pier 96 for the launch. I'm a southern girl and this was my very first visit to "Sin City" ... or so I had been warned. My first impression was that it was just big and crowded. And the water at Pier 96 smelled ... like sewage. After we unloaded the kayaks Susan took me over to a railing and showed me the nasty, smelly water. "Now aren't you glad you're not paddling the surfski?" she said. I was indeed!



Jerry Blackstone was the organizer of this interesting paddle and his friend Steve was serving as trip leader while Jerry provided ground support. All total I think we had something like 31 paddlers signed up for Saturday. In fact, so many people signed up for the circumnavigation that he had another paddle set for Sunday. The total mileage for the circumnavigation was about 31 miles. Jerry had very carefully planned this trip out to work around the tides so we had the tides in our favor through each leg of the trip. At some points we were cruising along at over 7 mph!



Shannon lived in NYC for a several years so she was my unofficial tour guide. She also had the only laminated map between us. So throughout the trip she kept showing me where we were and which bridge we were passing under. It was cool to see all these bridges I had heard about ... the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and the others.



At one point around the Williamsburg bridge we hit a section with 3 foot waves. For Shannon and I this was just pure fun. Having paddled mostly on the Chesapeake Bay we're accustomed to waves and surf action. But we heard later that some of the other paddlers were really scared by the big waves. I think I clocked our speed in that section at close to 7 mph!

After another mile or so we all stopped for lunch at a sculpture park. And there we got to see some of the wildlife that Susan had talked about. Shannon found a dead rat washed up next to her kayak! See photo to the left. Although this looks like a calendar shot of Shannon she's actually posing with the dead rat. Look closely under the kayak! She also found a large dead bird in the water but I didn't get a photo of that one.

After lunch we continued out on the East River past a section called Hell's Gate. Hell's Gate is a narrow section of the East River between Manhatten and Long Island. It can be dangerous due to strong tidal currents and rocks but we made it through without incident.

We stopped at a boathouse in Harlem for another break. After the break Shannon and I took off in our kayaks ahead of Susan and Kathy. A few hundred feet from the launch I saw what appeared to be another dead thing in the water. As it turns out it was just a cabbage patch type doll. But as we were poking it in the water Susan yelled out, "What's that?" Because we had been talking about dead bodies floating I yelled back, "Oh nothing just another dead body." From afar it really looked like a dead body and I think I had her fooled until she got right up on it. Chris placed the dead body on Susan's kayak for transport to the morgue which we thought was quite funny. I don't think Kathy got the humor because she eventually threw it back to the river with a poke of her paddle. Although this sounds quite tasteless ... it seemed hilarious at the time!

We passed by Columbia University and headed back to the Hudson River for the final 7 miles to Pier 96. We were paddling around 6 mph which I thought was a decent pace, but Jerry had another planned break for us at a waterside bar on the Hudson River. We stopped there for about half an hour and waited for the tide to turn more in our favor. The idea was to give the group the maximum tidal push back to the Pier. Shannon beached herself on the rocks like a seal. I explored the bar and took a gatoraid break.



And he was right. A half hour delay meant the Hudson was rushing past us and we made the final paddle back at around 7.25 mph. This meant that even the slowest paddlers had an awesome speed coming in to the Pier and probably could have just floated back in! Here is the final speed graph from my GPS.



It was an awesome paddle! I got to see Manhattan and some of the famous landmarks from a perspective few people ever see. I would definitely do it again! As usual, I took most of the pictures. Shannon did bring her very serious waterproof camera and took some great city shots of me paddling. Unfortunately it's one of those old fashioned cameras. It uses film! So it will be awhile till I get to see some photos of me.

When we got back to DC we unloaded all the gear and washed the kayaks. There was so much crud from the river still on the boats. Here is a final shot of Shannon inspecting her kayak. She has a lot of black marks on the bottom which we were unable to remove. Any advice on cleaning scuff marks on a fiberglass kayak would be greatly appreciated!

-Susanita

Shannon and I had a late afternoon paddle at Sandy Point State Park on Sunday. We had originally planned to start loading the boats around 11:00, but she got in late Saturday night from a photography assignment and I didn't sleep well, so when she called around 10:00 I was more than happy to start later. We didn't get to Sandy Point until around 3:00, which was fine. We still managed to get in around 4 hours on the water. Not a hard paddle, but it was a nice workout.



We visited two lighthouses and kayaked under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge ... taking lots of pictures. Like usual I started out taking the pictures but since Shannon is a real photographer she couldn't resist telling me how to set the scene. Then she wanted the camera to take pictures of me. But everything had to be just right. We had to paddle around to get the best view of the bridge and to get the sun in the right position for optimum lighting. I rarely go to this much effort when I'm taking pictures. I just take enough that hopefully some will turn out.



At one point she accidentally hit the macro function on the camera. Some really good shots of me got all blurry until we figured out how to reset the camera.


-Susanita

I asked Shannon to pause so I could get a picture of the Mirage in the Gorge, to which she replied, "What about me? Take a picture of me." Ok. So here's a picture of Shannon paddling my Purple Mirage in the Rocky Gorge.

On Saturday, July 8th, I picked up about eight paddlers for a social paddle in the Rocky Gorge. The plan was to meet at the Brown's Bridge put-in at 9:30, but by 8:00 I still hadn't heard from Shannon. So I called her and woke her up. She answered the phone with, "Hi Susan." I think she was expecting my call. After debating with her the pros and cons of sleep vs kayaking on a warm summer day I convinced her to get up, grab something to eat and make the short drive over to my house. Shannon is looking for a new boat to replace her wooden strip boat so I loaded up the Mirage so she could take it out for a test paddle.

We got to the put-in right on time and found most people already there. Several people who emailed that they were coming didn't show. And a few people who didn't email did show. We also picked up two new paddlers at the put-in, Sherman, who paddles a custom made strip boat that looks like it belongs in a museum, and Rowe, who just acquired a plastic recreational boat. It was obvious that he was fairly new to paddling so around mile 2.8 mile he decided to head back to the put-in. But before he left we had some nice conversations about paddling, different types of boats, and of course I told him about CPA.

Todd, who paddles with Pirates of Georgetown, entertained everyone by reciting poetry for most of the trip. I suggested he do it in another language (because I really don't like poetry) to which he effortlessly switched into Russian, then gave a synopsis in English. I didn't understand either the Russian or the English version. Scott and Dave were two other paddlers who joined that I had never met. Dave paddles with the Baltimore Pirates and Scott came down from Frederick and was paddling a new Chesapeake Lightcraft kayak he had recently finished. Sue and Rich, who are both Pier 7 Pirates, also paddled with us.



My friend Russell emailed right before I left the house that he had just got my invitation and couldn't make the Brown's Bridge put-in so he decided to put-in at Scott's Cove and meet us on the river. We ran into him a few miles outside of Scott's Cove. It would have been a perfect day to do a conditioning paddle in the surfski, but this was a social paddle so we kept a nice steady pace of about 4.3 mph. I hung back near the rear. I knew if I was in front without view of the group ... I would be tempted to paddle too fast. The surfski really doesn't like to go slow.

The debris which filled the Gorge last Tuesday was mostly gone. That was a trip I didn't blog about ... mostly because the paddle was so frustrating. I had gone out that day armed with my GPS and my IPOD and had set my Garmin Forerunner 301 on race mode. On race mode you pick a pace for your virtual training partner and race against it. I picked a virtual racing partner with a race pace of 5.8 mph. I also set up the GPS to beep at me when my pace fell below a lower threshold. The paddle from Brown's Bridge to Scott's Cove is about 6 miles. One loop of 12 miles would be about the distance of most kayak races. I thought I had planned out the perfect kayak workout. However, what I hadn't planned on was "gunk." The Gorge was filled that day with "gunk" ... leaves, twigs, and this mysterious bubbly, slimy stuff. Just when I would get up to a good speed the "gunk" would wrap itself around the rudder and drag me down to a crawl. I spent most of the day cleaning the "gunk" out of the rudder. And the final insult was after I finished the 12 mile paddle my GPS beeped to inform me that I had lost the race. Arrgh!

Today the water was perfect and most of the "gunk" was gone. And even though it would have been a perfect day to race ... I kept a nice leisurely pace. We got back to the put-in around 2. Shannon took out Todd's Necky for a paddle and Dave's Montauk. Both nice boats. But ... they're not purple!



Later I went to a party at Uber Bob's. Ran into Bob, Gina, and Rick ... from the Tangier Trip ... as well as some other paddlers. We relived some of the stories from our trip and of course ... I told the story again of how I won the PA State Kayak Championship which started this whole blogging thing! I don't know how much more mileage I can get out of that one. Believe it or not ... some people are starting to tire of that story! Gina offered to loan me a tiara from her days as float queen. Hmmm.

-Susanita

On Monday, July 3, I met Rick at the Brown's Bridge put-in for a leisurely paddle around Rocky Gorge Reservoir. Rick was working on different paddling strokes he needs to master for an upcoming BCU coach test in Vermont. I brought my surfski so I was only interested in paddling straight. While Rick was working on his BCU strokes I worked on my forward stroke. I did a few sprints but mostly I just paddled around. Rocky Gorge is a reservoir and thus has no real current and since power boats are not allowed, no wakes either.

We did take some time to explore a few of the inlets and coves. Saw some large turtles and lots of blue herons. And I took this shot of a mystery white ball which appears to be held closely by spider legs. I kept thinking that this would be a great place to practice paddling technique on the surfski, but it was just so ... quiet. Rocky Gorge is definitely for nature lovers. I didn't bring the IPOD because I wanted to be sociable, but if I came out alone on the surfski I would definitely bring some tunes.

-Susanita