Kayaks on Grout Pond

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Overview of Summer 2011

This was a great summer. I did a lot of activities, the family went on a number of trips and saw different things, and we all had a nice, positive vibe about most things. Among the events this summer were the following: Train in concert at Tanglewood, Saratoga Springs Race Track, tree/bridge jumping into the Swift River in Belchertown, kayaking the Housatonic River (saw a bald eagle on the wing), disc golf, hiking on Mount Greylock, and a number of other fun things.
     The Train concert at Tanglewood was really fun. Pat Monahan (I think this is the lead singer's name) is a first-rate entertainer and the band was tight and raucous. The evening was not without drama, however. All along since February when Chris bought the tickets we believed that the show was on Tuesday, August 9--that Monday, August 8, at 5:30 PM, my sister-in-law, Sue Sarage (Susie B) got a call from a colleague of hers who was also attending the show. Sue's friend wanted to know where she was. Sue told her she was at her condo. Sue's friend wanted to know why she was there and not at Tanglewood--the show was about to start!! So we dropped dinner plans, tossed a few drinks into a few coolers, threw some chairs into the trunks and dashed off to Tanglewood, about 25 minutes down the road from where we were staying. It was all good and it was all love. We got to the lawn on a gorgeous summer evening about a half hour before show time, split a few $8.50 Reubens, knocked back a couple of Coronnas and some vino, and enjoyed one heck of a show. We were all concerned that we did not know any Train songs, but we were wrong about that too! We knew at least half the songs, and the others were so good we danced right along. This was a great night.
     Next post: Saratoga Springs and Hattie's . . . .

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Biking in Provincetown

     One of the most fun activities that I took part in while we were staying up in Provincetown over the week of July 1 - 7 was biking on the Province Lands Bike Trail off Race Point Beach. I ended up taking three trips on three separate occasions, and each trip was great both physically and mentally. My riding companions included both my boys, Patrick and Alex; and my sister-in-law Susan Sarage (Susie B) and her daughter Serena. Chris and Sue's husband John both had some difficulties with the hills so they were not riding with me though I do believe the entire Sarage family rode the Trail after we all left.
     The Province Lands Bike Trail, map link as follows: http://www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/upload/Final2008bikerevise.pdf , was a lot of things: scenic, fun, challenging, grueling, breathtaking, and all of those things were experienced on each ride. The first ride I took was on a sun-splashed beach day after a few hours of reading and lounging on Race Point Beach (a beautiful beach, but no waves this week). We did not know what to expect, but we had heard the Trail was hilly--it is. But the really fun thing about that is once you crest a hill, and especially a longer, steeper hill, you have 150 - 200 yards of downhill to enjoy and that is worth the sweat and breath to get there. In fact, we often found that the Trail had a distinctly roller-coaster style to it in that you get enough momentum from one downhill to crest the next uphill. In the end, five of us completed the entire Trail and we got back to the beach hot, sweaty and ready for a long dip in the chilly waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
     The longest ride I took was with Alex and Serena on the morning before we left. We started out at our condo on Bradford Street, rode up Moors Road onto the Herring Cove Beach Spur onto the Beech Forest Loop, which was the ride mentioned above. This was about an eight or nine mile ride and it took about all I had to complete it--a quick note: if you do ride this Trail use your road bike, my wide-tire mountain bike didn't have the fluidity this route requires. But we did ride it and it was good. Once again the day was sparkling sunshine and blue sky and riding without a shirt was fabulous. We were a bit more prepared for the hills than the previous ride, so we felt more confident and paced ourselves better. Still, there was one hill that kicked my butt and I walked up the last part of it--then it was roller-coaster time!
     On one other occasion we were pressed for time so we rode from our condo over the Herring Cove Beach Spur to the Loop and back, which was a nice ride but not much challenge.
     One last note: If you can not bring your own bike, there are a number of bike shops in and around P-town where you can rent, and these shops have good, quality bikes that will provide all the fun you'll hope for.
     Our entire trip to Provincetown was fun, and the rides on the Province Town Bike Trail were definitely highlights--if you're out on the Cape, take a day and journey to Race Point to beach and ride. It's a great day.




     

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Summer of 2011

June 23: The last day of school!!! Actually, I had seniors this year so my last day was a while ago; but this is the official, actual, certified LAST last day . . . so what to do, what to do:
     I'd like to say I am going to learn German and work on translating Nietzsche, but I'm not--besides, that whole thing's been done and re-done; I'd also like to say that I am going to work on assuring peace in the world, but I'm not doing that either: I will be trying to keep peace in my own home, though! Finally, I'd love to say I'm going to hike the Appalachian Trail or explore the Amazon River basin, but I'm not really planning on doing either of those things. What I've got in store is a bit more mundane, a bit more simple, but fun and exciting just the same.
     The family is vacationing in Provincetown and the Berkshires and during those trips, in no particular order or designation, we'll go on a whale watch, catch a Cape Cod League ballgame, bet on thoroughbreds at Saratoga, zipline, listen to Train at Tanglewood, beach, bike, hike, dine famously in home and out, shop (ugh), play mini-golf, and relax and read. And this is just on the trips out of Dodge. In Holyoke I'll be doing a "lot of painting around here," according to Chris, and any other odd jobs we need done--cutting down trees, gardening--and watching Sandy Koufax and Legion ballgames. There will be day trips to the beach, and Chris and I have tickets for Lucinda Williams at Mt. Park; and I fully intend to ride my bike three times a week at least and kayak once every two weeks. Hopefully we can get Patrick a job and get him earning some bucks, and hopefully Alex will fall into a basketball or baseball camp, but he usually stays pretty busy.
     As usual, once August gets here it's football season for Alex and everybody starts thinking about getting back to routine, so summer really goes by quickly; but it's nice to have time off with family and it's nice to get together with friends and relatives. So enjoy your summer and perhaps I'll see some of you at some point.
     Finally, maybe I'll grab Chris and we'll do a little doubles freestyle canoeing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d_ecs7h184&feature=related
     Nah, probably not . . . Genießen Sie den Sommer, Spaß haben und seien Sie vorsichtig!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Reading, 2011

First day of Summer and my 25th wedding anniversary!
     Our family will be going out to Provincetown in July and up to the Berkshires in August for our Summer vacations this year, so it is that time of year where I start to plan for my own Summer Reading:
     First off I plan to read Malcolm Gladwell's books The Tipping Point and Blink. I recently completed Gladwell's Outliers, which I could not put down. Outliers is, essentially, a debunking of the prodigy myth. According to Gladwell, there are no prodigies or outliers beyond the norm--anyone and everyone can become an outlier as long as a few circumstances fall into place. Perhaps the simplest example of this is his '10,000 hour rule.' Anyone can be an expert or a Mozart or The Beatles if you practice what you do for a total of 10,000 hours.
     Gladwell is my favorite New Yorker writer. He is articulate, interesting, copiously read, and he writes in a direct, breezy style that is at once informative and fun to read. I highly recommend anything by him--even the things I haven't read. The following is his website: http://www.gladwell.com/index.html . Trust me on this guy.
     A few must-reads are some books for my AE-9 class: How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff), The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara), and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie). I know nothing about these books, but I will get them read as part of the job. I have read all the books for my AE-12 and WL-12 classes, and can highly recommend at least three:  
  • Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is a story about a season of the Permian High School football team in Odessa, TX. It's a good read, though he bogs down quite often in detail and minutiae. 
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is an absolute must-read--don't settle for the movie; the book is much better--about an Afghan boy's searching for his place in the world during and after the Taliban's taking over in Afghanistan. Some of the scenes are brutal and graphic, but it's great everything: literature, history, story, characters . . . everything. Read it. Today.
  • The Tiger by John Valliant is a fascinating story revolving around a man-eating tiger hunt in Siberia. I'll let the author tell you about his own book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-w1K4LCyw . Again, I couldn't put this down. You will know more about tigers than you thought was possible to know, and you will come away awed by the power and influence of the world's apex predator. A potentially great beach read.
     I tend to like non-fiction rather than fiction, and I thoroughly enjoy going through a New Yorker front to back, but I reckon in preparation for my classes I'll revist a few of the following classics at least in part: Beowulf, Romeo & Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird; and a few shorter works to get the 9th graders thinking about symbolism: "To Build a Fire" and The Pearl.
     So please read some of these books--let me know what you think, and maybe let me know what I should add to my list; but don't tell me to drop Beowulf--the book rocks . . . enjoy the Summer and enjoy reading.
     

Father's Day, 2011

How can a Father's Day be perfect? Let me count the ways . . . start with Eggs Benedict for breakfast, kayak the quiet, flowing waters of Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary at noon, watch your older boy play ball in the early afternoon, do a bit of gardening after that, grab a quick hot tub, then finish the Day with some ribs and a College World Series game. It was such a great day.
A map of Arcadia; our route is in blue.
     I've already spoke a bit about Arcadia (see post: Kayaking the Oxbow) but on this day we got to go deeper into the Area on the Mill River. The current was really flowing toward the river, which meant a tough pull into the Santuaruy, but on our way out we were flying. This is a great spot to paddle because it is so quiet and usually so full of observable wildlife. Today we didn't see much, however, only a solitary heron and a few turtles. But the ride was fun, and Chris was zooming along with the current on the way back out toward the Oxbow. The only negative part of the event was the number of folks fishing off the bridge near the put-in. We were concerned about getting tied up in a line or two, and whether it was us or them, neither Chris nor I felt really welcome as we put in. Maybe the fishermen thought we'd scare the fish away? Maybe we were in a bad spot? Who knows, but next time we'll get a different put-in spot with fewer people and fewer fishing lines. Once again the LL Bean Kayak cart proved itself to be one of the greatest inventions of the Modern Era. If you kayak or canoe, you have to have one of these . . . here's the link one more time: http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/48787?feat=502150-GN3 .
      After kayaking we caught a few innings of Patrick's Legion game against Easthampton. Here's a great one: Just as Chris and I were pulling into our parking spot I noticed Patrick loosening up getting ready to hit. I told Chris to hustle up and let's get to the field. We got around the dugout just as Patrick was stepping in, and then CRACK!!! he crushes a ball to deep left-center--the first steps by both the leftfielder and the centerfielder were backwards. He ended up with a beautiful RBI double. I turned to some of the parents there and I couldn't resist: "That's my Father's Day gift, Baby, yes!!!" We stayed a few more innings and left--ultimately Patrick's team lost, but I got my present out of it . . .
     The rest of the day we were homebound, doing a bit of garden work, sitting in my hot tub for a bit, and manging on some Babyback ribs in chipolte marinade. I caught a bit of Rory McIlroy's US Open win and watched a few innings of South Carolina and Texas A&M. It was a great day--lots of love going around the Dragon house . . .
  

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Winter Past

The winter of 2010 - 2011 was great; actually, the winter of 2010 - 2011 was excellent. By the numbers, here's what it was all about: 6 snow days; 4 delay days (I'm a teacher, these are still cool!); 14 days of skiing at Ski Butternut; 5 nights of skiing at Berkshire East; 2 days at Mount Snow; 1 day at Killington; and 5 days of snowshoeing. All these numbers mean that of a winter snow activity season that ran from December 4 to March 20--my first and last days of skiing, though Alex snowboarded at Okemo on April 6--or 105 days, I did some kind of winter snow activity 27 of 105 days, or 26% of the time. When I consider that the Ski Butternut season didn't really start until Xmas week, the actual activity numbers are 26 of 84, or 31%. That's a great winter! An excellent winter!
     Of the 22 days of skiing, I would have to say that 18 of them were just about perfect. I'm not a great skier, probably a solid mid-intermediate, so I really need the packed powder to truly enjoy the game. Killington's conditions were a little rough and there were a few too many people on the slopes for my taste, and the last 2 days at Ski Butternut were awful--the snow was melting and I felt I was skiing in mashed potatoes--but there were some beautiful blue-jay days with packed powder conditions in between. Especially at Ski Butternut, where me and Alex strive to get the first chair, conditions were superb: cold snow, hours of fresh corduroy, thin crowds, and when you factor in the 2 mental health mid-week days, well, this ski season was one of the best in recent memory. However, as good as the skiing was, the snowshoeing was almost at least as good. The reason for this is because Chris and I got to share this activity.
Chris at Ledges CC; Mt. Tom is in the background.

 Me at Jones Point; the Connecticut River is in the background.
     Chris doesn't ski. She got a bit spooked over the last couple of years and she gave the sport up--which is ironic because she was the one that got me back into the sport in the 80's--so all my skiing has been with the boys. They are superb snowboarders and good company, but they go much faster than I do and they like doing tricks; I go as fast as I can control and I like my skis solidly on the snow. Besides, I wouldn't really apres ski with them and then drive. Thus, skiing with those guys was sometimes bittersweet. But Chris and I strapped on snowshoes for the first time in years in mid-January, and it was a mental, physical, spiritual revelation. We loved it.
     And we were doing it together and we were spending quality time together. We found the perfect spot to go down by the Connecticut River in an area called Jones Point: flat land, plenty of paths, plenty of bushwhacking area, beautiful scenery. Another great area was at Ledges Country Club in South Hadley: more slope, plenty of space, some bushwhacking, beautiful scenery. We took plenty of pictures, we chatted, we worked out together, and now we have sport number two we can do together for the rest of our lives. As crazy as it may sound, I am eagerly looking forward to the deep snow of January and February 2012; there's a number of new locations I want to snowshoe.
A shot of Ledges Country Club: Our route is in yellow.
     How about this for the perfect winter weekend: First chair at Ski Butternut with Patrick and Alex on Saturday morning; hot tub and steak dinner on Saturday evening; brunch with the family at Gramp's in Holyoke on Sunday morning; snowshoeing Jones Point with Chris in the afternoon; and homemade chicken soup and a Patriots playoff game in the evening . . . it sounds great; actually, it sounds excellent. 







Thursday, June 16, 2011

Jumping Off Things for Fun

Click on the link below and watch Alex having some fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6kQakaHN0w  

This is a little fun that I had with Alex a couple of years ago on the bridge leading into Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary (see post Kayaking the Oxbow). Chris and I saw a couple of kids jumping off this bridge on an earlier kayak trip, and we thought that Alex would love it; and he did! Later in the summer we took a bunch of the neighborhood kids and off they went. Unfortunately, on one trip we took a beaver came swimming out of the Sanctuary right under the bridge and it spooked Alex badly. He actually thought it was an alligator; but no matter what he thought it was he saw, he was not bridge jumping there anymore, and he hasn't. But it was good fun while it lasted--we tried to get Chris to do it but she wasn't going there, and no, I ain't doing it either. 


Below I've included a video of my sister's family jumping off a rock somewhere in Baxter State Forest in Maine. They hike and camp there a few times a year. Naturally, Alex is dying to try this jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59bFOezKNxw

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

First Win for the Panthers

The South Hadley Panthers Sandy Koufax baseball team got off the schneid last night and grabbed their first victory of the season, a 12 - 5 win over Holyoke People's Bank at Michell Field in Holyoke. The game was really solid and intense until the 5th when Holyoke's pitchers blew up and the Panthers plated nine runs on a single, a double, and 6 - 7 walks. The Panthers were lead by my son, Alex, who threw six innings and gave up five runs, three earned, for his first win of the season. He was helped by some stellar defensive play that included two unassisted double plays and a great diving catch by shortstop Colin Paleologoupolos on a shot up the middle to close out the 4th inning with two on.
     The win was particularly sweet because Alex, whose been pitching since he was 8, had a typically solid game, moving the ball up and down and using a bit of off-speed stuff, and finally got some help behind him. Our kids are hard-working, invested, and determined, but they aren't particularly skilled. We beat ourselves too often because we make a lot of errors--both mental and physical. Yeah, we're young; and yeah, this is their first season on a 90-foot diamond, but they flub routine grounders, drop cans of corn, throw to the wrong base, and make strange decisions all too often. Tonight we only had one or two errors--one resulted in two runs, but still . . . we played solidly and made at least four excellent plays in the field, and that adds up to victory number one.
     In the end the kids were thrilled, the coaches and parents were relieved--as one said, "No sourpusses tonight"--and Alex got a triple dog treat from Nick's Nest. But the cutest thing that came out of the win was that all the kids were going to wear their jerseys to school as an act of celebration.
     Well played, Panthers, keep on working, and keep on having fun.

  

Thursday, June 9, 2011

On Why No Kids

Chris and I have two remarkable sons, Patrick, 18, who just completed his first year at UMASS-Amherst; and Alexander, 13, who's just wrapping up seventh grade, who will rarely appear in any of these posts. It's not that we wouldn't love to have the guys with us, nor is it true that Chris and I are trying to create a couples' only thing, but the truth of the matter is that neither Patrick nor Alex want to participate in the activities that Chris and I find fun and invigorating and rewarding. The boys certainly aren't sedentary--Patrick plays Legion baseball and works out and runs and snowboards, and Alex is a three-sport guy who snowboards and dabbles in wiffle ball and trampoline--it's just that hiking and kayaking and snow shoeing hold no interest to them. We do ask; they consistently tell us no. They are polite about it and always ask where we went and what happened when we get back, but it's always no and always a firm no. I've often wondered why it's always no and why no kids come with us.
     Both guys have tried kayaking and hiking and snowshoeing, and we've gone ziplining and biking and tried fishing, but nothing's ever caught their fancy. With Patrick I get the sense that there's no challenge or no goal as in a win or lose game. He doesn't seem to dislike kayaking, for instance, rather it seems that while he's doing it there's no involvement beyond the physical exertion. Chris and I marvel at nature and the surroundings; he puts the paddle in the water and moves forward, and then he eats to replenish the expended energy. He doesn't seem struck by the activity or the connection to the world while on a body of water. Alex is much the same way; like Patrick, he does the activity but doesn't engage in it. He's kind of like, "Alright, I'm here and I'm paddling and I'm in the water and . . . what's the big deal?" To be fair, Alex did have a really negative kayaking experience a couple of years ago on Harriman's Reservoir in Vermont--a heavy breeze started and Alex was going three strokes forward and two strokes back and he had less-than-zero fun--but other than that there's never been any injuries or disasters or anything that would leave a mental or physical scar on either of them that would make them fear the sports; there's been nothing like that; they just do not want to participate.
     Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that after playing competitive sports, where there is always a clear-cut and relatively meaningful goal to achieve, where the reward of their physical effort results in a clearly tangible end like a basket or a base hit or a touchdown, and where they can experience in a very real way "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," the outdoor activities that Chris and I enjoy are simply too non-competitive: there's no goals, there's no results, there's no adrenaline. We participate in our activities for a very different reason than they participate in theirs, and those reasons are diametrically opposed. Ultimately, then, I guess all that we can hope for is that once their competitive-sport days are over--as they inevitably are for all of us--they might choose to participate with us in the activities we do. Hopefully, we won't be too old to get that time together.
     Another reason I think that comes between the activities we do and the boys' participation is a bit more insidious: video gaming. It seems that to a 13-year-old killing Nazi zombies is more thrilling than watching a heron stalk prey; the 18-year-old is more interested initiating "double kills" rather than busting a trail through a foot of fresh snow. I don't play video games because I never mastered the techniques and the games are just not interesting to me, but my kids and their friends, with whom they communicate during play, all love the games and they are all very competent at them. I don't have a big thing against the games, but the problem I percieve is that once the boys have left their competitive-sport careers are they going to develop an interest in the outdoors, as I hope they do, or are they merely going to play more video games, which, as we all know, get more challenging and more difficult every generation? That is the question, and I'm fearful that the answer is they'll continue to see video games as the competition activities they lost. But video games don't broaden one's life experience or take one to new places, they merely rehash and redo skills they've already mastered: Is killing computer-generated zombies a truly rewarding life experience? I'm fearful that the ease with which one kills zombies or Nazis on TV will replace the challenge of doing relatively physically-challenging activities such as hiking or biking. I really don't want to see my oldest at 30 forsaking an opportunity to kayak with his Mom or Dad in order to stay home and play Modern Warfare IX.
     So I don't really have an answer for why the boys won't play with their Mom and Dad--in the end maybe what we do is just not cool enough--but I've decided that part of our outdoor experiences include being part of their outdoor activities whether it's baseball or football or whatever, and thus all those events become part of this blog. Why, just the other day at the ballyard, Alex came up with no outs and a kid on second . . .

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Grout Pond, VT

Grout Pond is a wonderful little gem of a quiet water kayak site located in southern Vermont about 20 miles north and west of Willmington off Rte. 100. Only about a mile-and-a-half in length and ringed by a number of man-made and clearly-marked hiking trails, Grout Pond provided me and Chris with a wonderful afternoon of paddling, hiking and picnicing.
Grout Pond: Kayaking in yellow; hiking in red.
     The paddling was easy as there was no current or wind--an issue at times on some of Vermont's bigger lakes/ponds we've heard--and there were a few inlets to explore as we tried to find a way to connect to Somerset Reservoir west of Grout Pond. A part of the pond was dammed by beavers and this made for some careful paddling through the fallen tree limbs and uprooted trunks, but this is something we both enjoy working through and it provided some interesting pictures. There was not a lot of wildlife to be seen, but this was probably more of a function of when we were paddling rather than where we were paddling, though a woman and her daughter did report that she had come across a bear during their hike. We only saw a Canada goose family foraging on the shore line. Interestingly, the family had a nest on a beaver lodge, which seemed to provide excellent protection from nocturnal predators. We heard a number of very interesting bird calls and songs, but we really did not see anything out of the ordinary.
     We pulled in to a neat spot along the bank of the pond that was designed for the purpose of pulling in, and we had a great picnic and stretch before we hiked the south bank of the pond. It was an easy stroll of fairly level ground that scooted past a number of campers and campsites along the pond. We tried to convince ourselves that camping in the woods and sleeping on a wooden platform would be cool, but we just could not get there. We determined that "car camping" was for others--we'll visit the woods and hike and paddle, but then we're going back to the Crafts' Inn and soaking in the hot tub, enjoying the sauna, happy houring on the porch, and dining in a restaurant.
    The path to the put in on the pond from the drop off point was a fairly steep grade and walk of about 150 feet and it was here that we discovered we were in possession of one of man's greatest inventions: the stowaway kayak and canoe cart from LL Bean: http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/502150?nav=cb3-118 . This device absolutely rocks AND rolls--no more carrying a cumbersome kayak any distance over rough or graded terrain. Simply attach the cart to the back of the kayak, pick up the front end by the handle and roll your kayak to the water. Chris and I highly recommend everyone have one of these tools to help you move your boat. It truly enhances the kayaking experience.
     So that was our trip to Grout Pond. It was a nice 3 hour experience outside of the drive from Wilmington, which was about 30 minutes or so one way. There are restroom facilities throughout the area, and there are a number of donation boxes also. Do donate, this place deserves it.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Kayaking the Oxbow

Chris and I kayaked the Oxbow area of the Connecticut River in Easthampton the other day. Although we had a good paddle (any paddle's a good paddle), this area is definitely not the quiet water that Chris and I prefer. It was loud and crowded and chaotic and a bit testosterone-fueled due to the fishing derby happening at the time, and after we finished we were left flopping around in the gray goo of the riverbank between Ford Avalanches whipping trailors into and out of the water picking up and dropping off motorboats.
     But as I said, the paddle was good. We caught some push current going out, so that got us working fairly hard, and the noise and wakes of the motorboats got to be a drag; but once we got to the Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary entrance things were much calmer and quieter. To get to the Sanctuary, however, boaters have to go under a small bridge, and due to the recent rains and drainage, the access was clogged with the flotsam and jetsam of a river in upheaval--there were a number of large, heavy logs, a bunch of branches and sticks and leaves, a few flip-flops, a sneaker, a Cheetos bag and other rather undesirable stuff that we had to push through and over to get to the the actual Sanctuary. Once there, though, things got good fast. We had nice flat, quiet water, and we saw a number of herons hunting and flying. Those birds are very cool, especially in flight, but even more especially when you can get to within 20 - 30 feet of them. Red-winged blackbirds were flying all around us, and turtles--I assumed--were diving all over the place. We were really enjoying the trip, but we realized quickly we needed to head back--it was getting late and we were a bit drained from the paddle to the Sanctuary. As we turned around, a guy was paddling out also, but he was moving really good; we waved and he waved, and we were soon turned around and heading home. Thankfully, it seems that this gentleman, on his way under the bridge, pulled a few logs out of the way and left a clear path for us.
     So we headed back to the put in with the fishing tournament--"Let's go!!!! Time's running out!!!--and the gray goo and reasoned that although this wasn't a quiet paddle per se, it still was a few hours on the water and a real nice workout. We just will not be putting in at the Oxbow during a Saturday or Sunday anymore.