Cold but beautiful

The motivation to get myself down to the river was hard to find yesterday morning.  The skies were overcast, a frigid north wind was blowing, and the air temperature was 34 degrees Fahrenheit.  It took some searching--under sofa cushions, behind kitchen appliances, in the back corners of closets--but I did finally find it.

Lots of heavy rain higher up in the watershed is causing a big rise on the Mississippi River right now.  The forecast calls for a crest of 36 feet on the Memphis gauge about a week from now.  It was at 32.2 feet as I paddled away from the dock yesterday.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, I ferried across the river to the Arkansas side to inspect the flooding of the bottomland there.  The lowest-lying expanses south of Interstate 40 were underwater but it didn't appear deep enough to paddle yet.

This morning was gloomy and grey once again, but it was a touch warmer--43 degrees when I arrived at the river.  In the wake of some rainfall there was a mist shrouding the riverfront in ethereal beauty.  I had a workout in mind for today, and with the river lapping at the 33-foot mark, I was keen to check out the expanded paddleable real estate over on the Arkansas side.  Just north of I-40 there's an oxbow known as Dacus Lake that one can paddle onto from the main Mississippi during high-water periods.

I paddled out of the harbor, ferried across the river, and worked my way upstream to the channel that connects the present-day river to the oxbow lake that carried the flows of centuries past.  When I emerged on Dacus Lake I found myself paddling against some current--an oxbow lake is a river channel at high water, after all--but the water was smooth and a good place for my workout.  I did ten 30-second sprints at 3-minute intervals.  I consider this an aerobic workout, as the long recoveries prevent my body from going lactic.  But it also gives me the chance to paddle hard and fast, something I believe is a skill that must be practiced.  If you only train slow, you're going to race slow.

The last several sprints were starting to hurt a little, but overall I felt much better than I did during the workout last Sunday.  Once I'd finished I headed back to where the lake flows out into the main river.  Backwater areas like Dacus Lake are really quite lovely and I always savor the chance to paddle there.

I paddled a good solid pace back to the harbor and back to the dock to complete 100 minutes in the boat.  I could spend the rest of the day feeling good about my morning's work and sightseeing.


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