May 29, 2005 12:19
Yay, for nice days! (After the "second-gloomiest May on record", according to the Boston Globe.) I went out kayaking for a couple of hours, paddled up to the Wellesley dam (about 2.6 miles each way), and got some light sunburn on my arms, too.
Not much wildlife visible, except for scads of red-winged blackbirds, and grackles; and very loud frogs, which I could not see. There was one point where I almost got fucked up by a pair of swans who had about 7 little cygnets. So cute! Mom (or Dad) was sufficiently wary of me to get all the little babies to get up on her/his back. Eeeeee! I got out of that inlet before they fucked me up, then wound up going within about 6 feet of them all on the other side of the little island of grasses, which they'd decided to climb up on. Both Mom and Dad flapped their very big wings at me, as if to say, "you know one of these could break your arm, right?", and I replied, "yes, I know, but I have a paddle". They didn't charge me, though.
The river was at least a foot higher than usual, and in the upper reaches, the current was stronger than I'd experienced before. I got a hell of a workout on one half-mile stretch, right before getting to the dam, which was the closest I've gotten so far to being in anything like "white water". (And that was "not *very* much like white-water", really; just pretty choppy and interesting.) I was right that making it to the top was worth the effort for getting to turn around and virtually coast back along that half-mile.
I was also pleased that when I got to Trader Joe's and the guy said he hoped that I'd been out to enjoy this wonderful day, I could honestly answer that I *had*, virtuously, Been Out and Done Outdoorsy Things. (I think the fact that the jeans I was wearing were soaked to the knee should have tipped him off.)
My new super-lightweight paddle is pretty keen. And today, the muscles in my arms and shoulders don't hurt as much as I thought they would. (They did for a bit last night.) I think I'd better go and moisturize this sunburn some more, though.
Perhaps I shall go out again tomorrow, on Lake Cochituate. If the weather cooperates.
nature,
kayaking,
local fun