Spent the weekend in Louisville, KY to visit friends Mark and Elke and attend Mark's birthday party. They are great hosts and obviously very experienced in this custom of opening your house to various friends and colleagues. The party was great and went very late. I very much enjoyed meeting Mark's co workers and friends, and the additional company of their visiting friends from England. We ate out at a couple fo great local restaurants, and polished off the weekend with a grand buffet brunch on the riverside this morning before they dropped me back at the airport.
Thanks again for the party guys.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Tubing the Rainbow
As many times as I've kayaked this river, I've never just floated down it on a tube. Until today.
Had a great lazy day out on the river. Nice and hot and sunny, and a great group of Florida Trail'ers, led by Rodney.
The river was as clear as always, and even easier to enjoy from the comfort of a rubber tube. It was warm enough to want to be in the water a couple of times an hour, and lay out in the sun the remainder. We saw the usual wildlife, birds, fish, and a couple of otters, one of which swam by us for a while while he worked on cracking open an oyster on his belly. Of course, I didn't have the camera becasue I'd been concerned about keeping it dry. That figures.
I'll have to remember to add this to the list of things to do with out of town guests in the summer.
Had a great lazy day out on the river. Nice and hot and sunny, and a great group of Florida Trail'ers, led by Rodney.
The river was as clear as always, and even easier to enjoy from the comfort of a rubber tube. It was warm enough to want to be in the water a couple of times an hour, and lay out in the sun the remainder. We saw the usual wildlife, birds, fish, and a couple of otters, one of which swam by us for a while while he worked on cracking open an oyster on his belly. Of course, I didn't have the camera becasue I'd been concerned about keeping it dry. That figures.
I'll have to remember to add this to the list of things to do with out of town guests in the summer.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Little Econ Flood
When it rains, it pours.
The central florida area has received some torrential rainfall in the past couple of weeks, and the rivers are all in high flood. Ian called on Thursday with an invite to join the gang on an impromptu kayak tripon the very flooded Little Big Econ River. Usually the river is about a foot or so deep and you have to worry about sandbars, so the idea of paddling high water seemed like fun.
It was. The water was high and swift. We were up in the trees at the tops of the banks, and in a couple of places the banks were breached with water flowing both into and out of the river. All the beaches we usually pull up on for breaks were non existant. We actually ended up stopping for lunch at the Florida Trail bridge, which was impassable by water or land. By water it was a mere inch or two from the bottom of the bridge, but only in the humped center of the span. That inch or so was pulling swift and hard, and straining debris that was sucked into the flow. The trail at the ends of the bridge were several feet under water. After lunch in our boats anchored to the bridge we had to paddle quite far inland and through the old railroad bridge posts to get around and downstream.
Had a bit of excitement with a friend of Rodnay's on her first kayak trip. For some reason she wasn't wearing her life vest, but had it snapped to her boat. She flipped once, whihc for me would be more than enough incentive to put the jacket on, but still it stayed on the boat. On her second flip we were in very deep and fast water on a bend in the river with lots of overhanging branches straining the water. It was quite an effort by the entire group to get her, and her boat, out of the water,the right way up, and back on the river. Amazingly, she still didn't put the jacket on! We werealmost to the takeout point by then, so I just figured the best idea was to pull ahead and get off the water. If she had no concern or respect for the water,I no longer wanted any part of it.
As a result of grounding my boat and wading round in the high brush on the last rescue I must have upset some displaced ants. Shortly after putting back in the water I realised my boat was full of them. The first sign waswhen they swarmed around my legs and ass and started biting. Ants in the pants, and in a kayak in deep, swift water too. That was fun!
The central florida area has received some torrential rainfall in the past couple of weeks, and the rivers are all in high flood. Ian called on Thursday with an invite to join the gang on an impromptu kayak tripon the very flooded Little Big Econ River. Usually the river is about a foot or so deep and you have to worry about sandbars, so the idea of paddling high water seemed like fun.
It was. The water was high and swift. We were up in the trees at the tops of the banks, and in a couple of places the banks were breached with water flowing both into and out of the river. All the beaches we usually pull up on for breaks were non existant. We actually ended up stopping for lunch at the Florida Trail bridge, which was impassable by water or land. By water it was a mere inch or two from the bottom of the bridge, but only in the humped center of the span. That inch or so was pulling swift and hard, and straining debris that was sucked into the flow. The trail at the ends of the bridge were several feet under water. After lunch in our boats anchored to the bridge we had to paddle quite far inland and through the old railroad bridge posts to get around and downstream.
Had a bit of excitement with a friend of Rodnay's on her first kayak trip. For some reason she wasn't wearing her life vest, but had it snapped to her boat. She flipped once, whihc for me would be more than enough incentive to put the jacket on, but still it stayed on the boat. On her second flip we were in very deep and fast water on a bend in the river with lots of overhanging branches straining the water. It was quite an effort by the entire group to get her, and her boat, out of the water,the right way up, and back on the river. Amazingly, she still didn't put the jacket on! We werealmost to the takeout point by then, so I just figured the best idea was to pull ahead and get off the water. If she had no concern or respect for the water,I no longer wanted any part of it.
As a result of grounding my boat and wading round in the high brush on the last rescue I must have upset some displaced ants. Shortly after putting back in the water I realised my boat was full of them. The first sign waswhen they swarmed around my legs and ass and started biting. Ants in the pants, and in a kayak in deep, swift water too. That was fun!
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