Warm weather continued for much of this past week, with the temperature exceeding 80 degrees Fahrenheit a couple of times. I had a nice 60-minute paddle Tuesday morning in calmer conditions than what Adam and I had paddled in on Sunday. The mornings are still cool enough that I'm not just dying to take a hose bath on the dock after I paddle, but those days will arrive soon enough.
I got a good bike ride in Thursday afternoon. I took the Greater Memphis Greenline out to Shelby Farms, did a loop around Patriot Lake, and came back. Riding neither super-easy nor super-hard, I did that in about 95 minutes.
Thursday was one of those days when I didn't even start up my car; the bike ride was my only venture away from home. And on Friday I went all day again without cranking the engine. I spent most of the day on a woodworking project for a client. Meanwhile, Friday differed from Thursday in that it was much cooler. A front had come through overnight, and I don't think we ever made it to 60 degrees on Friday.
It was time to paddle again yesterday morning, and I really didn't want to do it. Part of the reason was that my homebodyish ways of the previous couple of days were starting to gel, and part of the reason was this "blackberry winter" we're having. Six weeks ago I welcomed a day with a high temperature in the 50s, but after those 80-degree days we just had it feels awfully chilly. The temperature was around 50 degrees when I got up yesterday, and a brisk wind was blowing. I think the only reason I managed to get myself to the river is that I'm such a creature of habit: when it's Saturday morning, I paddle. That's just how I'm wired.
I fought through a thick mire of ennui to get my boat off the rack and get myself dressed for paddling, knowing that once I was in the boat, I would find the energy. And sure enough, I did. I spent the two-kilometer paddle from the dock to the mouth of the harbor shaking off the sluggishness, and then I was ready to do a good long session. I had a couple of options: with the Mississippi flowing at 21.7 feet on the Memphis gauge, I still had enough water to paddle around the Loosahatchie Bar. Or I could stay on the Tennessee side of the river, paddle up to the mouth of the Wolf River, and then paddle up the Wolf to the Danny Thomas Boulevard bridge and back. Helping me make the decision was a big river-touring boat (the Mississippi Symphony) moored along the bank up near the Wolf: while I could have just fought the Mississippi's current to get around it and access the Wolf, I decided that I might as well stay out in the channel and ferry across, thereby committing myself to a trip around the Bar.
The wind was blowing from the northeast, and I'd had some shelter from it while paddling up the Tennessee bank. But over on the west side of the Mississippi's main channel I had to fight some stiff headwinds to get up to the top of the Loosahatchie Bar. Once I was paddling down the Loosahatchie Chute the wind was coming from about my eight o'clock, so it was a mostly helpful tailwind but not without some nuisance effects. As I emerged from the Chute and rejoined the main channel I found myself with more of a beam wind. Northerly winds don't cause the same kind of rough water on the Mississippi that southerly winds do, but I still had lots of pesky chop slapping against my boat on the port side.
I've mentioned in the past that I like to break two hours (elapsed time between leaving the dock and returning to the dock) when I go around the Bar. By the time I was passing beneath the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, I knew I was going to have to push it to have a chance. I made it from the bridge to the harbor entrance about as quickly as I could have asked, but then I had a headwind for the two kilometers back to the dock. Having paddled this stretch thousands of times over the years, I knew just how imposing my task was as I passed one landmark after another. With about 500 meters to go, I could tell I was going to fall just short. I completed the journey in about two hours, one minute.
I left the river feeling good about it just the same. I was dead-dog tired the rest of the day. There were all kinds of events happening around town, including some live music I might have liked to hear, but in the end I stayed close to home. I slept soundly last night.
This morning it was slightly cooler and just as windy, but at least the sun was out. Today I would stay in the harbor and paddle mostly easy for 60 minutes. As I set out I was quite stiff in my pelvic area after two hours of hip rotation in bumpy conditions yesterday. I paddled to the harbor's north end first, trying to let my body move without forcing it as much as I could. Eventually things loosened up for me, especially once I was paddling back south with the wind at my back. Back on the dock I was tired again but congratulating myself on a solid few days of work.
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