8.9.2020 Black River (Melrose to VV w/ NEW Shortcut)
Today’s trip was COVID 13, and it was a weird “13” adventure. We started out with a heavy rain forecast, but ended up with sun and a few little drops during the day, overall a nice weather day. We tried a new shortcut to get directly to our parking spot on Hwy VV, I have looked at that cutoff for about 40 years and never tried it—until today. It made the full day an adventure, charting new territory and wondering what was just around the next bend. The cutoff started as a wide open and very nice trail, but we knew it could not last, and it did not. We finally came to the surprise ending that we feared. A sharp turn with a good current and little or no choice on direction so we chose one and went with it, and to my surprise everyone made it—except one—ME!!!! You take your eye off the trail for a minute and find yourself on top of a log and too “high centered” to recover so I flipped. The only thing everyone heard was “Oh, S#@T” and they knew what happened. The crew has enjoyed a pretty good laugh at my expense—but that it what kayaking is all about—it is not a matter of “if” you fall in, it is a matter of “when” you fall in. Truly it was a fun and great experience and would not have traded that new adventure for anything.
Our day for wildlife was a little light, we only saw turtles, one Eagle, and a Muskrat. Our music selection does reflect the views of the day. Our crew for this exciting trip was; Steve, Bill, Teresa, Tom, and Me. Our water temperature for the day was 70° and our air temp was a humid 89° and the water stage was a little low at 3.7 feet. We traveled our 10.5 miles (we saved ¼ mile by taking our shortcut) and out travel average was a relatively slow 3.4 miles per hour. The water was very still, with an occasional head wind. As usual, we had another great day sprinkled with a bit of excitement
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No still photos this week, everything is in the video.
Our music selection for today was decided by Steve and Teresa:
Muskrat Love by Captain & Tenille