Three friends, three kayaks, three tow belts and

[eneumeier]

two paddles. Oops.

On Friday afternoon three paddlers met at the Lincoln Canoe launch on Rt. 117 for a quiet, get-the-cobwebs-out paddle on the Sudbury River. After carrying the 3 kayaks down to the launch, one of our number realized the absence of a paddle. No worries mate! We have plenty of tow belts. Agreeing to switch off tower and towee positions we set off, upstream, to check out the head room under the Rt. 117 bridge.

The water level was high but that was not the problem. Construction of the new bridge is ongoing with numerous lines and sections of those ugly orange plastic mesh barriers are hanging down in the water. At first a way through looked inviting but given the current, number of obstacles to avoid and length of the tamden tow we opted to reverse direction. Had we been separately in singles, we could easily have gone through.

The towee was assigned guide duties and dutifully read from "The Concord, Sudbury and Assabet Rivers: a Guide to Canoeing, Wildlife and History" 2nd edition, by Ron McAdow (Bliss Publishing Co. 2000) as we entered Fairhaven Bay.

Things were so mellow and our pace so non-threatening that Great Blue Herons just watched us go by without bothering to take flight. Overhead two huge turkey vultures circled low then took off, apparently deciding we were too big for dinner. Whew!

One guy fishing, presumably catch and release given the DO NOT EAT fish signs posted in 6 languages. Otherwise, the river was ours.

The towing exercise allowed us to sort out which side of the Salamander held the long rope and which the short, how to stop the daisy chain from unraveling at the right location, how invisible a black line is in the water, and the importance of keeping track of lines in the water as three paddlers drift closer and closer to marsh weeds.

The absent paddle exercise was a good reminder to always carry a spare, even for short river trips. You never know... :-)

Nice afternoon. Good to be on liquid water after a long ski season.

Liz N.