Road trip - Oconomowoc River. High winds, 19 degrees, sunny is shining, perfect. With the long weekend, this was going to be my long paddle day. "O" Dark 30 drive to get to the put in. Gorgeous sunrise.
Current is ripping pretty good. Attempted to paddle up-river to Lac La Belle. Made 6 miles till I came up on this bridge. Pulled out and check my options. Didn't look good for paddling through it. I gave it a hap-hazard attempt. There was a little shelf under the bridge, didn't think I could get up it.
Sea Wind on the shoreline while I scope under the bridge, grab a bite to eat and soak up some sun. Still pretty cold out and the wind howling, but the trees are providing a pretty good wind break.
Another shot of the swirling water. I pondered this for a while, as I really wanted to stick to my plan and make it up to Lac La Belle. That would have given me a round trip of 24 miles.
Cut my loss and turned it down river. Temps. in the mid 20's, clouds forming and the sunshine diminishing. It would be a brisk paddle into the wind glad I had the current with me.
What you wont see in the pictures, is me falling out of the boat. Yep... As I was negotiating a narrow section that had fallen trees and I caught a branch right under my collarbone. My momentum and the branch catching me just right, put me tumbling into the water. I was stupefied. I couldn't believe it. I'm swimming for it.
The bonus was I had my new camera and cell phone in the life jacket pocket. Camera ruined, phone, appears to be OK after drying it out on the dashboard. But the real point of this posting is having a ditch kit ( hypothermia kit, dry clothes, dry hat, dry mittens and woolly socks). I had all the right gear for all the right reasons.
Paddle on paddle safe. - The Capt'n
1 comment:
Bless'd be those with ditch kits!
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