Winter Paddling, Y'all

We’ve hit that time of the year where if you don’t go out after sunset, you pretty much don’t go. Well… that is if you work regular hours and try to hit the river more than just the weekend. Even with the weekend, it can be tough sometimes to leave the water by sunset at 4:47 pm. Not that I wanted to know this, but it looks like we have a nine-day run of 4:39 pm sunsets in early December. 

Summer anyone?

Clearly, complaining about sunset times isn’t where anyone wants to be, so how about looking at the awesomeness that is winter paddling. (Wait! Didn’t a previous post say paddling’s winter season didn’t start until I started to really bundle up? Sort of seems like we’re there, but, anyway.) 

At the risk of sounding like I’m all over the place, one awesome thing about winter is the darkness. So many things to mention about nighttime paddling, but I’ll leave the waxing for another day. It’ll be here.

A leaf mention happened in an earlier post, but winter is awesome for the lack of tree coverage. Sure, this means that a few house lights make it out on the water, but for seeing what lies beyond the banks, the absence of leaves is a must. 

It isn’t all cold around here in the winter; we get some warmer days, too. And when we do, the bugs come out. I love me mayfly burst and drift when the sun comes out. Blue-winged olives?

I think you get the point, even without mention of the ice, clear(er) water, snowfall, snow blowing off trees in the sun, and on and on.

No doubt you will see them here again.

Winter has ice