Who came?
Lois & John, Bob Fitch, Judy & Fred Swartz, Karen Mueller, Steve Somers, Maxi Neugebauer, Marv & Marlene, Henry Eckhardt
Where did you go?
Upper Pine River from Briarpatch to Walker Bridge
How was it?
Delightful! The best weather of the summer finally arrived!
What kind of boats were there?
Two solo canoes (L & J), everyone else in kayaks
Anything noteworthy?
For two of us paddlers this was our first time on the Upper Pine from Five Mile Rd. to Walker Bridge. To me this is now my favorite section of the river and a great discovery treat near the end of summer.
The morning started cool to keep the bugs away, and finished as a perfect cloudless summer day in the high 70's. Even with the fine
weather no one went swimming, by design or otherwise.
The lunch stop was livened up with a song for Marvin Puska's birthday along with good brownies supplied by Marlene.
Sometimes the sun gets to paddlers after a while and one can always hear brilliant observations. Today's jewels included: (no names to protect freedom of speech):
If you want to learn to paddle properly, you can't be dumb.
Taking off layers of clothes while paddling is an important skill.
And a great observation about Liquid Logic kayaks; "It looks like a gas station kayak"
This is easily one of the prettiest streams in the area, and it doesn't require a permit, like the sections of the Pine that are further downstream. Several folks realized that they had to pay careful attention to their river-reading skills, since there were numerous rocks to avoid, especially since our recent lack of rain has brought the river levels down a bit.
Maxi got the chance to test paddle the kayaks of several other members of the group, since she has finally resolved to get rid of the "gas station boat" that was sold to her by a local outdoor shop last spring. She discovered that paddling a boat that isn't a bathtub is a lot more fun. We had plenty of time to play, since there were no major obstacles.
We also got to celebrate Marv's 73rd birthday, with brownies (and a candle) supplied by Marlene, and then at the end, celebrated once again with more goodies courtesy of Steve and the MSU victory the previous day. Everyone agreed we were too full for ice cream - now that's a great day on the river!
Written by Henry & Lois