5/22/2021 Black River: Melrose to North Bend VV

5.22.2021  Black River:  Melrose to North Bend VV  (2.5’/mile)

Trip Number (21-6) Well we did it again—had a great paddling tour, in spite of last week’s misadventure, today we had ample water (not too much, but enough) and we are back enjoying the paddles.  We had guests from Iowa (Dan and Judy), Minnesota (Mark, Michelle, and Ellie) along with us good old regulars; Bill, Teresa, Pat C., Steve, and Me for a total of 10 paddlers.  Most of these folks are Teresa’s family and have been with us before, but we did enjoy meeting Ellie for the first time.  Ellie is a pleasant young lady going to college but really wanted to spend the few days she has at home this year doing fun stuff—hence the paddle down the Black River.  Our conditions for the day were adequate with a water reading of 3.95 feet and a water temperature of 65° and a beautiful day of slightly overcast and 83°.  We managed to have a relaxing enjoyable pace of 3.0 mph as we traveled out 10.95 miles.  It took us 3 hours and 39 minu8tes of paddling and well over an hour of rest stops to just enjoy the day.  The only 2 people that had a challenge today were Steve and Mark as they attempted to do the “shortcut” through the back waters—even though we warned them.  The shortcut took considerably more time than us who took the long way around and enjoyed the paddle, unlike Mark and Steve who got wet trying to maneuver the log jam and logs blocking the waterway.  Only one of them actually got wet, but we are not telling.

Our wildlife for the day was quite interesting—Mark actually discovered a skunk in the trees along the bank but luckily we escaped his perfume–but I failed to get a picture of the event.  Another miss on my part was a goose doing a fly over attack of Steve, and again, no picture.  I need to be careful in the future how I brag about my camera abilities.  I missed several Eagles today, also, but did manage to capture a few of the many we did see.  We believe the count was over 30, but Ellie, our counter for the day, failed to keep track.  Lots of turtles were also seen.  The only other big event of the day was “The Race”.  Mark challenged his daughter to a race and Ellie showed him what 2^nd place looks like from a good distance.  The race was contested for interference, but without any proof, Ellie was declared the winner.

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Our music selection for today was decided by:

Ellie:  Walking on Sunshine by the Katrina and The Waves                        Beatles—cannot be used due to copyright

Steve:  Dried Up River  by The Lone Bellow and a Green River encore