Quick Trip

I put in at Indian Wells, in the section above the lowest dam on the big river.  The sign at the start warns that there is a dam 3 miles  downstream.  That sign always makes me chuckle.  

It is a nice summer day, sunny with slowly increasing clouds.  It is windier than I expected, and I pause to think about it as the wind is running straight up the river.  So, when I set out, I head downstream into the wind.  If worse comes to worse, I'll have a tailwind returning.  However, once in the canoe and in the water, the wind just isn't that bad.  It's gusting more than I thought, but the highest winds I was feeling were the gusts.  I make good time following the west shore.  I'm at the dam in 20 minutes.  That's why the warning sign at the put-in makes me chuckle.  Either I paddle 9 mph into the wind, or the distance to the dam is something more like 1 mile and not three.  

I cross the river and head back up.  The swans at the marsh have two, maybe three cygnets.  I had spotted their nest from the road when driving up this way.  In that same area, enormous carp are thrashing about.  I had spotted the splashing from a few hundred yards.  The water is murky with the mud they've stirred up.

I head up another mile or so, and call it a day.  The wind is building some, and this was intended as a short, quick trip.