It's been a pretty hot, humid weekend, especially today. On both days, the river was the nicest place to be. Out there you get a breeze that doesn't really penetrate the middle of town where I live.
Yesterday I did a simple 60-minute paddle, doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor and then just paddling steady out on the Mississippi.
Adam Davis joined me this morning, and we spent about 100 minutes doing a bit of everything. When we got to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, we did a drill I've been doing for years that involves ferrying from one piling to another, following as straight a line as possible. In addition to having to paddle pretty hard, you have to pay close attention to your ferry angle and boat control.
Then we paddled up to the outflow channel from Dacus Lake. The river has been dropping the last couple of weeks and water from the lake has been draining back into the main channel, and right now there's a small waterfall at the mouth of the channel. There also were some big fish hanging out there, enjoying the not-so-sediment-laden water coming from the lake.
We paddled a ways up into the Loosahatchie Chute. At the current river level the dikes are just below the surface, and we had to do some little attainment moves to get up over them.
Finally, as we were coming back downriver, there was an upstream-moving barge rig creating some good waves, and I paddled out to do some surfing. By this time I was pretty tired from all the paddling we'd done, but I got three or four decent rides before letting it go and returning to the harbor.
Like I said... a little of everything. It was a satisfying way to spend a hot early-summer morning.
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