I woke up yesterday morning and saw the sun rising in a clear sky, and braced myself for another scorching hot day. But then I headed out to paddle and found that it wasn't nearly so bad. My car's temperature display told me it was 85 degrees Fahrenheit, quite a few clouds had moved in to keep the sun at bay, and down on the riverfront there was a very pleasant breeze blowing from the south. I think the humidity was down, too.
I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, and paddled out onto the Mississippi to see what "play" workout opportunities were on offer. There was a big barge rig coming downriver with its props churning, and the waves looked good. When I paddled out into them I found that they were wandering all about, but I could sort of detect a pattern to their movement and I tried to position my boat accordingly. The rides I got were all brief but it was fun trying to link from one wave to the next.
Saturday is the day I usually take all my recyclable trash to the dumpsters down on Mud Island, so I try to pick up whatever floating recyclables I see along the riverfront to add to my household collection. Yesterday I grabbed eight or ten plastic bottles as I paddled up the harbor back to the dock. But if my good deed is going to be rewarded, apparently that'll come later: while I was putting my boat away a hornet gave me a wicked sting on the inside of my right ankle. I'm not terribly allergic to stings but I do get some localized swelling, and the area bloated right up and caused me much discomfort for the rest of the day. As I write this now, some 30 hours later, the pain and itching have subsided but the area is still quite swollen.
When I got to the dock this morning I took a careful look around to see if I could find the hornets' nest, and finally figured out it was inside my little boat stand that I made from pieces of PVC pipe. I flushed water through it and beat it against the dock until the nest finally fell out. I managed to do all this without any further stings.
Adam Davis and I got together today for the first time in a few weeks. We paddled from the mouth of the harbor across the Mississippi and up into the Loosahatchie Chute. The river has dropped a lot in recent weeks--today's level was about 8.7 feet on the Memphis gauge--and the current in the Chute was gentle, with some shallow water here and there. At one point we had to get out of our boats and hike them across a sandbar that was a couple of inches below the surface. I think the river is generally cleaner at low levels because it's not flooding farmlands and garbage dumps and stuff, and it enticed us into doing some remount practice in deeper water.
The weather was even a bit nicer than it was yesterday. I'd go so far as to say it was delightful, at least for July. That lovely south breeze was blowing again, and there was a generous scattering of clouds in the sky to keep the sun from beating down relentlessly. The Loosahatchie Chute has long been one of my favorite local outdoor spots, and it was beautiful today.
A week ago the oppressive heat was getting to me after paddling for just an hour, but today we paddled almost two hours and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes or so that I was starting to feel unpleasantly thirsty. I had an insulated bottle of cold water waiting for me on the dock and it capped off a good morning of paddling very nicely.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment