Several years ago, John’s sister Jul and her partner Bill organized a New Year’s Day kayak trip and invited us and some of their friends and clients along. Everyone had so much fun, despite the cold weather, that we have made it an annual event.
I do have one condition for my participation: the temperature must be 20 degrees or warmer. During my days in Search and Rescue, I spent enough hours on the water searching for drown victims in bitterly cold weather that I have no desire to do that any more. So far out of the 4 years we have been doing this John and I have only missed one.
The big problem of kayaking this time of year, aside from the cold air and water, is the ice. As you know what you see on the surface is a fraction of what lies under the water. The ice under the water tends to push and tilt your kayak making it a flipping hazard.
Even though many waterways have a lot of ice or are completely frozen over now, Bill and Jul did find an area of the Susquehanna that wasn’t completely frozen.
This year we had some regulars that were missing but we also had some new faces.
As all of our winter kayak trips, this one was short, only a mile or two, with a “pit stop” part way through. We like to build a fire, drink some wine, and have a few snacks just to extend the time of the actual trip.
A short distance from where we were going to make our pit stop a beautiful eagle soared over our heads and into the trees. He/She sat and watched all of us float by.
Once we landed the first order of business was to get a fire going.
Sam, John and Bill set off to find firewood and get the fire built. Thank goodness for fire bugs.
It felt wonderful. I don’t think any of us were cold, but there is nothing like a warm fire when the air is chilled.
After the fire was built everyone started exploring the area. While most people were looking for and finding river glass, my wonderful husband found me some crayfish claws, probably leftover from some sort of a cookout earlier in the year. I’m so lucky to have John don’t you think?
After we got off the water, some of us headed over to Bill and Jul’s for some sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and pork. Once we were good and full we said our farewells and headed home.
Tiffany and her fiance Josh, came over for a quick visit and we finished up our day at my parents house for the family gathering and more sauerkraut.
Quite a nice start to 2011 I think. John and I wish all of our friends and family great and prosperous 2011.
