We're muddling through a spell of high-heat-index days. The daily highs have been in the low to mid 90s Fahrenheit, but the humidity levels have made it feel like it's over 100 degrees. We've also had a few "code orange" air quality days, when people who are asthmatic or otherwise respiratorily sensitive should limit their time outdoors. Summers in the Mid South always seem to make life a bit more challenging than normal, but less than a month from now I'll get to escape for a while when I make my big trip out to the Pacific Northwest.
It was on its way to being a steamy day when I went down to the river yesterday morning. I got in the boat and paddled for 70 minutes, going down to the old bridges below downtown and then paddling back up along the Arkansas side before ferrying back across to the mouth of the harbor. The Riverfront Development Corporation and the Wolf River Conservancy were supposed to be conducting a riverfront litter pickup, but I didn't see anybody engaged in such an activity--I'm not sure where the meeting place for the event was supposed to be. But I'm all for cleaning up the litter on our riverfront, so I grabbed the floating pieces of trash I encountered. I got several plastic bottles, a couple of plastic shopping bags, and a couple of styrofoam plates. That's about as much as my boat's footwell can hold.
I went back downtown to paddle this morning. For this period leading up to my trip I've been trying to do workouts on Sundays and Thursdays, but for the last several days I've been feeling tired and thinking maybe I should back off a bit. I expect the heat is partly to blame. I've written here in the past about the distinction between a "work" workout and a "play" workout (or should I just call it a "playout"?). My recent workouts have definitely been "work" workouts, in which I've endured the self-inflicted stress from having to satisfy the demands of a watch or a G.P.S. device. A good example of a "play" workout is going out and surfing the wakes behind barge rigs: it's plenty taxing because of the hard sprinting required, but it's also a lot of fun, especially when I manage to get some good rides.
This morning I decided such a "play" workout would be just the antidote for my mental fatigue. Of course, the problem with wanting to do some barge-wake surfing is that there aren't always barge rigs passing through the area when you want them. I suppose I could call up one of the big shipping companies and ask them to send a rig through at a time that works for me, but I'm pretty sure I know how that conversation would go.
I paddled from the dock to the mouth of the harbor, doing three 8-stroke sprints along the way. When I got out to the main river there didn't seem to be a barge rig in sight. But then I looked south and saw a big rig coming upriver around the big bend down by Presidents Island. I paddled downriver to meet it a few hundred meters below the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge. It was producing some huge waves, and like I always do, I drifted down to the tenth or fifteenth wave back before I attempted any surfing. Those first few waves behind an upstream-bound rig are enormous and intimidating... I wish I could tell you I'm fearless in the face of waves that big, but it isn't so. And I'm not sure how good they'd be for surfing because the water has been churned up by the towboat's screws. The waves smooth out farther back.
And so farther back I went to start surfing. Over the next fifteen minutes or so I got two or three of what I'd call sweet rides, where I could stop paddling and just glide; other surf attempts didn't yield great rides but I think I still got some "aid," which is to say that I still had to paddle hard but the resistance was less because my boat was pointed downhill on the face of a wave.
As the barge rig continued to move upstream and leave me farther behind, the waves began to peter out. I decided it was time to paddle upriver along the Arkansas bank and see if I could close the distance between me and the towboat; if so, I might find a few good surfable waves during the ferry back to the Tennessee side. For the next 20 minutes I paddled a good strong pace and little by little I did gain on the big commercial vessel. When I reached a point directly across from the mouth of the harbor I began my ferry back across. The waves I found were not ideal, and I didn't get any more "sweet" rides, but I did get some more of that "aid."
When I got back into the harbor I was pleased with how today's session had unfolded. The day had started with me feeling tired and unmotivated, but out on the river I got what I think was probably a very good simulation of what I might expect in the Gorge Downwind race out on the Columbia River next month. Everybody knows about the great waves in the Columbia Gorge, but I understand there are also parts of the upstream-moving course where it makes more sense to stay close to the bank and paddle where the current is not so strong. Today I got both some practice surfing and a good hard upstream tempo piece along the bank.
I rewarded myself with some re-mount practice (read: an excuse to flip the boat and cool off) in the harbor. Back at the dock, as I enjoyed a cool hose bath, I felt good about my hot summer morning.
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