November 21, 1999

The 600th Mile

Trip #65

6. 3 miles

MAP

It was pure coincidence my 600th mile came during the paddle after the annual CPA meeting. A fitting spot as any I suppose. I don't get to paddle often with the folks out this way, so when I'm out here I view it as a special treat for me to paddle with them.

During the meeting I learned there were 500+ members in CPA. There were 25 or 30 at the meeting. In the events I've attended in the last year, rarely have I seen more than 20 attend. The majority were repeat faces. My thoughts have pondered where the other 400+ paddlers are the last few days.

I almost always ask folks when I see them loading or unloading their boats if they belong to CPA. I've never met another member that way.

The meeting broke up after Joy volunteered me for something. I'm not sure what I agreed to, but I guess I'll figure it out or hope no one else remembers either. Being the socially inept introvert I quickly beat feet for Pier 7 while everyone milled around chatting for a few minutes.

At Pier 7 I unloaded my kayak and carried my stuff down to the water. I put on some new booties. Last week I had stepped on a thorn that went right through the sole of the booties I had. The new soles were thicker and I felt would do a better job of protecting my latex socks on my dry suit. I then walked out almost waist deep to see how cold the water was. Cold, but not horribly so. My suit quickly became comfortable after the initial flood of cold water.

When Greg and Jenny got there and put on their dry suit, I started to second guess if I should put mine on or not. I really don't want to get into that beast any sooner than I have to, so the dry suit stayed in the truck. I guess I should put it on and get used to it. What good is it if I don't wear it?

I think there were 7 or 8 of us that launched from Pier 7. We headed southeast for a few miles. The sun was getting low and I spent most of my time looking across the river on the north side to keep the glare down. When we got directly across the river from Persimmon Point, Brian got us all lined up in parallel to cross the channel. After waiting on a few boats we shot across.

We paddled into Harness creek a short way. I stopped to pull my GPS out and turn it on to measure the trip back, and when I looked up the water games had began! This was the same game played down at the skills workshop at Lake Anna. Now I really regretted not having my dry suit on. I was wearing the Polartec suit and knew if I started to play I would get dunked, and I had no desire to drive home an hour and a half wet.

Greg and Jenny had these cool little fuzzy rubber (?) caps that Velcro'd under the chin. The nice thing is that after rolling they could unfasten the chin portion and push it up out of the way, but still wear it like a hat. It sure looked a lot more comfortable than my neoprene hood. Jenny didn't seem to have any problems with water getting in by her glasses, which is a big plus for me.

After play time was over we paddled back along the north shore, crossing back over just before the marina. The sun was lower still and it got dark about the same time I drove off for home.

600 miles. Wow. Seems like a lot to me. At the same time, I don't think I have 600 miles worth of experience. I think I should be further along in my skills development since I see little difference in how I paddle and how someone with 3 months experience paddles. Yet I see a whole ocean of difference between myself and the more skilled paddlers of CPA. Next season I may spend more time stretching my limits. Maybe I'll spend more time *in* the water and trying to get more comfortable with wearing the kayak. Right now I feel like I've come up to a wall and my skills progression has halted and I'm not sure what it is going to take to break through...

Woody