4/18/2021 Irving to Melrose

4.18.21  Black River (Irving to Melrose (2.5 ft/mile )

Today marks the beginning of the 2021 kayak year.  Last year’s 22 trips may be hard to duplicate, but I think we can “give it a go”.  We are starting on the exact date we started on last year, but Sunday instead of Saturday.  There was a little confusion about weather, availability, and attitude for the first one, but we did overcome.  We have to name the year’s trips, so open to ideas—need a theme.  The crew for the day was a familiar group:  Bill and Teresa Peters, Steve Dunn, Pat Cavadini, Ben Heinz and ME.  Our air temp for the day was 63° with a “warm” water temp of 50°, actually warm for this time of year.  Our water stage was at 5.4 ft.—a little low for this section but we did make it through-kinda.  We traveled 12.4 miles in 3hrs and 26 min for an average moving speed of 3.6 mph.  The wind was a cruel force for us as we were bucking 30 mile per hour gusts and some consistent winds above 20 mph, so we did get some upper body exercise, and a few pains to remember the day.  But in spite of all that, this well-seasoned crew was able to manage to take over an hours’ worth of breaks, and finish timely, so a leisure trip.

Our wildlife was a little light, but we did see 3 deer, 2 ducks, and 4 Eagles (all flying quite high today).  Oh yea, that strange wolf and mistress returned again.  I did not take a lot of pictures, due to the light showing and my arms were busy paddling, but here they are.

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When viewing the still pictures below, click on them and they will also enlarge and then move through the selection with the arrow on your computer.  Enjoy!!

Our music selection for today was decided by: 

Steve and Pat:  The Stroke