February 14, 2004

Warmth

I had spent much of the morning looking for my pogies. I was so obsessed in trying to remember where they were I totally forgot to pick up a pair of paddling gloves on the way out the door. So barehanded I paddled off from the car-top launch at Leesylvania.

Tundra swans were back in Powell's creek. Memories of a long ago encounter of these swans sweep through my mind. I didn't want to spook them so I turned to paddle out to the Potomac. This was a warm-up paddle - one to test my shoulder after so many weekends trying to recoup from a pinched nerve. Also a checkout paddle for my freshly repaired skeg. Both would be deemed seaworthy before the end of the day.

Paddling along shore toward the boat ramp, shots rang out in the distance. Duck hunters. I didn't want to get close so I stopped a few moments to decide where I could paddle and put the pogies on my paddle. Shots rang out from the four compass points. No place near shore to paddle so I turned toward the east and Smallwood state park across 2 miles of open water. I often won't paddle on Saturdays during hunting season but the weather was so nice, and predicted to turn cold again before tomorrow.

Not wanting to risk injuring my shoulder I paddled slow. Stroke stroke stroke glide - stroke stroke stroke glide. The air just a tad foggy, I struggled to see distant shores. Shotguns continued to ring out while I continued on my way toward Smallwood. Bits of ice, small in width but sometimes a foot or more thick looked like miniature icebergs, and increasing in number once near the eastern shore.

Worried that hunters might also be tucked up Mattawoman Creek, I turned south and paddled for a bit a few hundred yards offshore. Getting near the green buoy I cross the channel and hang out for a moment near the buoy to gauge the current. It is heading north, maybe at half a knot. I set a slightly southward ferry angle and head back toward the western shore. To the south a tug is pushing a barge full of sand up river. I'm nearly all the way back across when the tug passes the section of the river I'm on. He's moving very slow, probably taking it easy because of the ice and floating tree trunks that litter the water.

Having been off the water for so long I tossed in a few bow rudders and hanging draws. They felt like friends coming out to play. I had been worried that I'd be a bit rusty and unstable from such a long period away from paddling. But they felt solid and confident. My paddling felt sluggish from the lack of exercise I've gotten this winter, but the skills still felt sharp.

Back to the kayak launch. The day just getting underway. The swans are gone and in a few moments, so am I.