The Cruelest Month

Picture is of Don Harper taking his prijon across the straits of Mackinac.


April is the Cruelest of Months…thank you T.S. Elliot. While it is how Mr. Elliot saw the tease of the changing of seasons. Paddlers particularly in the Midwest must feel the same because there is the teasing of the intermittent sun to draw us on the water, which has not warmed much at all. It is the time of the year that paddlers must remember that we dress for water temperatures, not the warmer air temperature. The shock of sub 50 degree water can render us helpless within minutes. Remember, of all times to paddle with a buddy this is the time. Also if you have a paddle float for reentry, make sure it is a solid foam paddle float and not one that you need to inflate. By the time it takes to inflate a paddle float in 40 degree water, your limbs may have lost much of their strength.

Last week we opened the store on Douglas Avenue and welcomed back a stream of friends. Mary stopped in; she is enroute to an adventure in Alaska. Rick reported in with 91 estimated miles this year so far. Clock Doc has been out four times. Krazykayak seems to be out most days and has picked up white water and a roll from his winter pool time. These are just a few. I have not seen Scott yet who usually brings in some very cold weather paddling pix from his mid winter efforts.

It is great fun catching up with these friends and meeting new ones.

John Mitchell dropped by, he is the president of the Black River Heritage trail in South Haven, one of our beautiful rivers. He mentioned that there are about 5 miles of log jams after the winter runoff and they will be working the river in the next several weeks. If anyone cares to help contact John at h2o_trail@yahoo.com. Macatawa Greenway is also working on the Black River in Holland/Zeeland over the next few weeks contact Derk at greenway@macatawa.org.

My next few writings will include some of our paddling plans for this year. Many of you have commented that my web site could be refreshed……I appreciate the reminders and it is underway. Keep checking us out at http://www.kayak-kayak.com/. I came across a great statement that was printed in the recent issue of Dividend, the periodical put out by the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan,…..”the 21st century is going to be the century of natural capital”. I agree with this and it is why we will be focusing on some interesting nature paddles this year. Michigan is an outstanding venue to paddle and we want to enjoy it.

Incidentally, I’ll be introducing our new Nifty series of Kayaks to augment the Prijon and Emotion lines. I am very pleased with our product offering.

Cheers,

Skip
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