By Peter Clayton

What began as a rather chilly – 49 degrees – outing paddling into the wind, ended in glorious sunshine with the wind pushing us gently home. By 9:30, eight bundled-up kayakers were heading upstream from the Trout Creek Park ramp – an hour later we pulled out at our usual rest stop – the lot owned by a delightful lady, Mrs. Knowles, who graciously let us do the same thing almost a decade ago – she said we could do the same any time, and, we have. We last saw her pre-covid when we met her son who lives on the property and is her care giver. We chatted with him again and learned she was at her second home in the North Carolina mountains and is doing well.

During this sojourn we were entertained by a pair of pileated woodpeckers on the opposite shore – see Stan’s photo. As noted, the return leg was most enjoyable thanks to warmer temps and a following breeze. Woodpeckers provided its usual top quality BBQ for lunch and all were home by 2:00. Photos from Stan and Marty follow – thanks to all participants for making this yet another quality event.