Saturday, March 13, 2004

February 28, 2004 Six canoes paddled at Hidden Falls on Saturday from noon until 1:45pm.  There was a full grown possum wandering on the ice bank where the Minnesota River joined the channel coming from the Mississippi River.  It was high noon and bright daylight, yet the possum was not afraid of our canoes.  We paddled within 20 feet of it and the possum just stared at us without blinking.    Tom Gardner was sited in a C1 (solo racing canoe) coming through the channel as we headed towards the Minnesota River but did not paddle with us because he must have had to get back home early.   The group included Dave Dahl & Rick Lorenzen, Kevin Shriver & Io Harberts, Al Dubois & Ed Arenz, Todd Ellison & Brett Arenz, Devin Arenz & Yuyudahn Hoppe, Ann & Joe Manns.   Al Dubois and Ed Arenz tipped over riding our side wake as we sprinted around the corner in the shallow channel on the way back.  In spite of the extremely cold water, both paddlers recovered without aid while the rest of the group waited nearby until they got back underway.  Where else would you find a 70 year old man like Al Dubois hearty enough to take a dunking in freezing cold water and dump his boots out and paddle upstream for another half hour?  We had paddled a total of 8.8 miles on my GPS on the trip out and back. As we drove over the Ford Parkway bridge, Doug Berg and Greg Zophy were sited in their canoe on the Mississippi River just upstream from the Ford Dam about 2:15pm as we were driving home.   10:59:54 PM    comment []

January 1, 2004 Kevin Shriver and I paddled at Hidden Falls Park below the Ford Dam on the Mississippi River.  We were a bit late  because the others had already left the parking lot.  It was good to paddle even though it was cold.  Stopped to talk to a friend from work who was walking in the dog park on the west shore of the Mississippi River.  Then we followed the broken trail through the quarter inch thick ice in the shortcut channel leading into the Minnesota River and caught the group of 3 canoes after about 45 minutes as they were coming back down the Minnesota River.   Kevin and I paddled less than 2 hours total.   10:59:24 PM    comment []

Thanks for visiting my blog! Rick Lorenzen (alias Canoe Race Hound and/or The Avid Canoeist) 10:57:03 PM    comment []