By yesterday I was definitely over the worst of my cold. But it was pouring down rain outside and the temperature wasn't much over 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so I gave myself the day off.
The rain eventually moved out of the area and I was back to business this morning. Even though it wasn't wickedly cold--it was 41 degrees when I arrived down at the river--it had the feel of a bleak winter day because of the overcast skies and cold northwest wind.
I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then headed up the Mississippi River. My plan was to paddle for 80 minutes total, and out on the river I decided to keep paddling upstream until I got to 50 minutes of elapsed time or reached the mouth of the Wolf River, whichever came first. I usually have no trouble getting up to the Wolf in less than 50 minutes, but today it was slow going because I was paddling into a headwind and at the current river level (31.6 feet on the Memphis gauge) I had to paddle against a lot of strong current. Eddies were few, and the best ones seemed to be in dense stands of trees and brush that forced me farther out into the main river flow.
So, when my watch hit 50 minutes I was still several hundred meters shy of the Wolf. All I could do was turn around and hope to go faster next time.
The rest of the day has remained dark and depressing. When I paddle in the morning on a day like today it seems like it takes me all afternoon to work the chill out of my body.
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