Changing Seasons ...

The mornings are getting chilly and I saw my first yellowing Maple along the Potomac Saturday. Fall is in the air. For Dave and I that means our teaching seasons are winding down. But hardly does that mean putting up the boats for the winter. On the contrary our paddling season is just beginning – at least the part where we paddle for fun and not profit!

To celebrate, Dave and I went paddling on Sunday. Marshall suggested a trip out to Thomas Point Light and that sounded grand to us. We arrived at Gallesville to find almost every parking spot filled with kayakers. Woody and Anne had already launched for their own trip. Todd, Kingsley, and Page were there and loading gear into their boats. Frank arrived shortly after us. Marshall unfortunately ended up having other plans that morning but promised to hail us on our VHFs when he got arrived around noon.

As we got ready to launch, the piles of gear beside the boats grew. Since paddling to Thomas Point Light requires several miles of open water more gear got stuffed into the boats than usual. Pumps, floats, tow belts, radios, spare clothes, extra paddles, snacks, water, charts, compasses, cameras – at least no one could say we weren’t prepared!

We got on the water around 10:00 am and it was glorious. A perfect day on the bay – as long as you are not looking for surf! Clear, sunny, light winds and near flat conditions. We paddled out from the marina selecting our favorite sail boats along the way. There were some beauties out. We stayed to the left of the channel and paddled near the shore up as far as the South River, from there we made a bee-line out to the light. Once in the deeper water, the swells began to pick up a little and the occasional power boat generated some bigger waves for variety.

With the wind behind us and the tide rising we made good time out to the light. As we approached the light classical music filled the air and we saw several people standing around the railing. We snapped pictures of them and the lighthouse while they snapped pictures of us. They evidently had stayed there for a day or so doing repairs and cleaning on the structure and were now waiting to be picked up. One of the guys had us all group up and took a photo. He promised to send it via email so check back for the pic.

We’d now been on the water for over 2 hours and lunch started to sound appealing so we headed back to a beach we passed a bit earlier. About half way across the South River we heard Marshall calling on his VHF, we called back with our location and info, and after several tries we finally made contact. He caught up with us on the beach while we ate lunch, basked in the sun and generally enjoyed the day.

After lunch we waffled on whether to extend our paddle up into the Rhode River but with sore muscles and a pile of laundry to get done at home we all turned in. No worries though, I've got many more fun paddles planned in the coming weeks. I love October!