9/13/2020 Black River Falls to Irving

9.13.2020 Black River (Black River Falls to Irving (2.5 ft/mile )

Today marks the COVID 17 trip.  Three more trips to go and we have beaten the COVID-19 thing.  Today was another series of “Firsts”; we brought along some young adults to enjoy the company of a bunch of geriatric paddlers.  Those 2 young ‘uns tried to show us how to do it, but a lot of the time he (Mark) was going the wrong way up the river while his wife (Michelle), even younger, was hanging with the group, enjoying the words of wisdom that the older Teresa was willing to share.  We finally had to put Mark on a “time-out” and make him paddle circles around us “old” folks so that we could keep track of him. On a positive note, Mark is much better looking than the guy that owns the kayak he was using.  We did enjoy a pretty good day, although the weather started a little slow with clouds everywhere and relatively low temperatures (around 56° to start), but it did finally get up to 64° by the end of our day with some pretty sunny skies—when were near completed.  Our water temperature was a brisk 61° with the depth right at 4.8 feet and rising for the day, due to a Saturday release of water from the Hatfield Dam.  Our 12.7 mile tour took us 3 hours and 18 minutes, plus 1 hour and 15 minutes additional time for breaks.  Of course, Mark was still paddling during the breaks, to burn off some of his excess energy.  We did average 3.8 mph for the entire trip, again Mark speeding up off the charts.

Our crew for the day included; Bill, Teresa, Mark (Teresa’s younger brother), his wife Michelle, Steve, Pat C. (Boomerang, returning again-another first), and Me.  I did enjoy meeting Mark and Michelle, as well as having Pat rejoin the group for another trip.  New people always seem to make the trip more interesting, and gives us someone to pick on.

Our wild life discoveries for the day included several Eagles, only one got up close and personal, a turtle, a Sandhill Crane, and some pink flamingos.

As always it was a great day, and enjoyed by all, thanks for joining us.

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Our music selection for today was decided by : 

Steve:  Up On Cripple Creek