Temps in the mid-70's today...in December. So what to do on such an unusually nice day?
LAUNCH KAYAK!
I put in to the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, WV and headed up river, passing under the North Duke Street/MD Hwy 34 bridge. The water's a bit chilly, but the sun is out and I'm not planning on doing any swimming.
Once under the bridge and around the bend, I'm out of town and pretty much away from people or man-made structures other than the C&O Canal Towpath on the Maryland shore to my right. I have the river to myself and the water is perfectly still, allowing for some fantastic reflections in it's mirror-like surface.
I move through the water at a decent pace, doing my best to stay quiet so I can hear the birds and small critters on shore. If I can manage to keep from dinging my paddle into the side of the boat, the only sound I make is a faint "splish, splish, splish..." as I move up river. No sounds of cars or anything else not nature. It's peaceful.
The only people I see on my upriver trek is a group of young female bicyclists on the towpath. They look cute, but alas, I'm out here in the water. I'd come back tomorrow with my bike to try to bump into them, but with my luck, they'd all be on the river in kayaks.
After about an hour or so, I find this tree branch sticking up out of the water so I anchor to it and just float here in the middle of the river, enjoying the day and taking a little time to thank God for creating all of this wonderful scenery and allowing me to get out here today to partake of it.
Heading back, I pass this boat moving upriver at a quick pace. Boat wake! Yee-Hah!
Arriving back under the MD-34 bridge, I can see the train bridge beyond, just past the structure of another bridge that washed out long ago.
Nothing but stone foundations left of that bridge, and even those are being reclaimed and demolished by the roots of trees growing atop them.
There's the train bridge. Still in use today and a preferred start/finish point for my runs when I use the road or the towpath.
Time to land and put the kayak up, then head over to a Thai place in town for a fantastic spicy Beef Pad Thai. Happy day indeed.
Gotta love that global warmening. I remember reading a paper one time explaining that, contrary to what the Al Gore crowd spouts, it's the cold climate periods that causes disasters: crops fail, and wars begin when starving tribes move into warmer lands claimed by other tribes. Greenland, when it was first discovered by the Vikings, could support agriculture, and they established a colony there; it failed when the Little Ice Age came and turned it into the icebox we are familiar with. Probably as the climate warms more the possibility of agriculture in Greenland will become a reality again.
ReplyDelete@ Bob: Are you saying that due to global warming, we could see a resurgence of Vikings? Eek!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Thanks for sharing. I'm thinking maybe you need to tow a little dingy behind you for the dog to ride in?
ReplyDelete"The water's a bit chilly, but the sun is out and I'm not planning on doing and swimming."
If those words popped into my head I'd be guaranteed an accidental trip into the water :)
I could tow a dingy for Murphy all day long, but that doesn't mean that he'd stay in it. He likes to swim too much.
ReplyDelete@ Bob. Uff da!
ReplyDeleteWhat Paladin said...
ReplyDeleteMuch nicer looking than my view from the Silver Spring office today.
I envy you that day! I spent all day in meetings... sigh
ReplyDeleteA lovely way to spend a lovely day! I have often walked along that path, and it's fun to see things from the water (I've often wondered...). There's a neat memorial up by those railway tracks, too. Thank you for giving me an outing while I take a break from grading papers.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Linda...and welcome to my humble blog.
ReplyDeleteI am loving this weather!! Usually, I like a little snow this time of year, but this is nice!!
ReplyDelete