March 15, 2006

Touching Warmth

It wasn't a typical Monday. By 9:30am I had pretty much caught up with everything that had broken over the weekend so I walked across the hall to have a conversation with a co-worker. As we chatted I walked to the window and looked out at the blue sky. "Touch the glass", I heard him say when he caught me staring out the window.

So I did.

The warmth of the sun radiated into my fingers. On the radio they talked about the weather turning cold again late tonight. Today would be the last day of a unusual 4 day warm spell.

"Screw it - My dry suit is in the car - I'm going kayaking."

I don't think my co-worker understood what I said. I walked back across the hall and and told my office mates I was leaving. By 11:00 I was pushing away from shore.

I had paddled Saturday alone out to the heron rookery. Activity was high as I suspect the warm day was causing the Great Blues to be more active than normal.

On Sunday Doug, his wife and a friend, and Patty got out again for another warm day paddle. So today made the third day in a row I had paddled. My shoulder muscles ached a bit as I started off and after a half mile felt extreamly tight. By a mile the pain had started to slacken a little and I turned around the point and headed for the Potomac.

Although there were whitecaps on the water, the waves were not very large. The warm wind was picking up enough chill from the water to keep me nice and cool. I neared the river as the wind died down and noticed something small floating off in the distance. I decided to paddle out into the river to see what the small floating objects were but after a half mile realized the little objects I thought were only a short distance out, are the channel markers on the other side of the river.

Turning around was a little depressing. But without food I knew I couldn't paddle on forever. Once back at High Point I stopped and let the kayak drift for a while and I watched the birds flow in and out of the rookery. The wind was starting back up so after a bit I decided I better get going.

I paddled past the small bay on my right and noticed the lone house that stands there was having its roof replaced. I spotted an osprey cutting across my path carrying a limb too large to allow it to get fully airborne. The stick bounced and skipped across the water as the bird tried in vain to lift off. It finally gave up and dropped the stick in the water.

The bald eagles and osprey alternated passing by me at low altitudes, sweeping the water looking for fish sunning themselves near the surface. As I turned around the point the wind began to push me back to the launch. But I didn't want to go. I kept trying to slow down and there was more than one moment I wanted to shout "STOP PUSHING!"

Despite my best efforts the paddle had to end. The weekend, the warm spell, it charged my batteries to get me through another few weeks of cold. It's almost here. Spring. And none too soon.