Running is therapy

Bob and Sun picked up some new kayaks at Wildware yesterday, and today we took them up to Opossum Lake to make sure they were sea worthy. Boy were they! We had a great time.

When we found the place (I hadn’t been there in years) I noticed that the water was REALLY low. After almost a complete circumnavigation of the lake I could see the water line was 10 to 15 feet lower than normal. This cut off a lot of the little coves and nooks that were always fun to explore up, and made paddling the length of the lake a pretty easy task.

While Sun and Bob were enjoying a good float, I decided to pop out for a bit and take a walk along a bunch of the shore line. I asked a fisher person why the lake was so low, and he said there was trouble with the dam. He also mentioned that “they” were trying to get together money to fix it but they didn’t know when that would be.

The Sentinel had an article from 2005 that hints at the problems. At least reading that you get the idea. The spillway was allowing seepage through, and the damn is only rated for 15 inches of rain in 24 hours (apparently the fed requires it be rated for 25″). Also it mentions that there would be a lot of damage if the damn fails. They have drained the lake down to below the spillway, and are (or were in that article) trying to see how much work it will take to rectify the situation.

It’s a shame, I was looking at some pics on line of Opossum Lake and it was much nicer when it had water in it.

Bob, Sun and I went out to do some paddling today. We hit the Yellow Breaches. Put in at the intersection near White Rock Acres and took out below Williams Grove park.

We had a great time, save for one small part. Bob and Sun, in the canoe were up ahead and came upon a nasty strainer. They where picking their way through when they realized that a submerged log was not going to allow them to pass. They kept cool and tried to make shore with out getting dumped by the massive tree blocking the way. I saw what they were doing and thought they would be fine. When we all realized the place where Bob would have to put his hand in order to make shore…held a water snake :)

To their credit, they didn’t panic, but now we had to get them back up stream and away from that tree. They managed to swing the bow around and I was out of the kayak by now so I could grab the canoe and help pull them back. We decided that a shallow carry river right was our best option so we shot for it and managed it fine.

Like most trips on the Yellow Breaches we encountered a TON of fisher people. One guy was really nice as I apologized for paddling though. He said, something to the effect of “Nah, it’s here for all of us, and any day out here is a good one”. Which I agree with, however I usually try to be non confrontational with the fisher people out there, as it’s pretty heavily fished and some of those guys (like any group) can be a real pain in the ass. I only got one huffy head shake in my direction all day.

The really good part is that it’s rekindled my interest in paddling. I haven’t gone for so long I almost forgot how fun it is. Looking forward to putting paddle to water in the near future.