I followed the advice and found a high place to camp. I set up my hammock even higher :) and tied my kayak as high as I could. I pulled the kayak as high up the bank as I could, until there was only the last 8 inches of the boat in the water. These were all good things as when the sun came up the water was three to four feet higher. Not a good night to sleep on a sand bank. The kayak was almost afloat by the time I cast off.

The river was incredibly changeable. It would go from wide and open to almost a creek flowing through a huge collection of snags and downed trees and then back to wide and open. A Klepper A2 not being a whitewater boat I got hung up a few times on logs and snags. A few times there was no way down the river through a downed tree and I found myself using momentum and the plentiful current to bust though some bushes on the edge of the river or the green leaves in the top of a newly fallen tree. Not my favorite kind of paddling. Many times I wished I had a Kruger and could just bash through with no fear of tearing my boat up.

One other challenge of this river is navigation. There where multiple places where there were options on which way to go. Once I paddled more than a quarter mile to ask a fisherman if he was in the river or if it was one of the side channels that are called "lakes". Turned out I had left the river and was in a lake. In another spot I found myself having left the channel and accidentally taken a short cut a Fish and Game officer had told me about but not been willing to attempt directions for. More than once I sat at an intersection trying to puzzle out which way to go, as twisty as it was south was not always the right answer. At one point I was worried that I was going up river (I was not :p). Guess this was very good training :)

The second day I planned to paddle twenty to twenty five miles. The middle of the afternoon came and I had already covered more than twenty miles. I called Christy and she told me there were thunderstorms forcast for that night. I pushed on and as the end of the afternoon neared I thought I only had ten miles or so before a takeout point so I pushed on. Total for the day was forty-two miles. By far my longest paddle. About half of that was in current (ducking and dodging fallen trees) and the other half fairly open without much current and with a headwind.

I must have done enough of a workout cause I am still sore :) Total count 16:45 hours in the boat and 64 miles traveled.

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June: 28 Miles 12.5 Hours 8 days paddled

July: 14.5 Miles 7.75 Hours 3 days paddled

August: 9 Miles 4 hours (Hurt my shoulder then back) bah! 2 days paddled

September: 6 Miles 2.5 Hours 1 day paddled Yeah recovery!!! (mostly)

October: (So Far) 16 Miles 7.5 hours 5 days paddled (out of 8 wow)

My thoughts are that I need to kick it up a notch or three, but that I seem to be on the right track for this month.

My target this month is to be on the water 15 days and do at least 75 miles. Wish me luck :)

No photos because my camera has died.

I also saw more manatees than I have ever seen in the river. I saw at least six and it could have been 8 or 9. (Some could have been multiple sitings of the same manatee).

In other news I have my new hull for the klepper from Wayland in Poland. I have bought a new Jetboil stove , a tent, and some other stuff. I will be doing some reviews as I put the stuff to use so watch for that.

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Well let me list my reasons:

1. I am fat and have been really out of shape and doing the ec in a
kayak is a way of motivating (tricking) me into changing that.

2. I have a desk job, and to much of a tendency to come home and sit
on the couch or in front of a computer (see #1)

3. I want to see the wilderness waterway, and don't see a way to do
that in my Sea Pearl

4. I have done the race in a sailboat and find it interesting and
challenging to do the race in a sailing kayak.

5. See #1 :)

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Also I have been fascinated by sailing canes and kayaks for a long time. Read the following and you may get the bug yourself:

A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe

THE ROB ROY IN THE BALTIC

The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth

All Things are Possible The Verlen Kruger Story: 100,000 Miles By Paddle

In related news my shoulder is better but is still hurting some, but mainly I have been off the water due to a lingering stomach bug. I am thinking about trying tonight shoulder or no shoulder, will have to see how the belly is.

I had several shoulder problems in the Army (probably relating to evil evil push ups) but I have not had any pain for about 10 years. bah bah bah. Well I hope to get a paddle in Sunday but I am not going to push it if it hurts I will just give it till Tuesday and see how it is then.

Gary aka Lugnut of water tribe, my fearless captain in the 2007 Everglades Challenge, he of rowing super powers (Hey I was there I saw it! Who are you to doubt?) is going to fix some broken pieces in my Klepper and reinforce some parts with fiberglass while I stand there and "help him". It is really nice of him and just the latest in a long list of nice things Gary and Helen have done for me starting with "wanna crew on my boat for the EC?"

I tell you the Water Tribers are all the nicest people in the world. It would have been worth doing the challenge just to meet all of them.

And over at Duckworks webwatch page chuck is trying to scare small children using a picture of me! Well actually he linked to two of our recent podcasts and to this site. Thanks Chuck :) Lots of cool stuff on the page (and the rest of the site) that is not scary to small children.

Scared the crap out of a small gator it was just swimming along in the dark minding its own business and swish I come along. I almost passed it completely before it noticed me. Then it took off down river fast with a loud splash of its tail. Saw a couple of bats flying low over the river hunting insects.

I really like the night paddles. No other boats and nice and cool.

Did a slightly different route tonight. I had this theory that the reason the first half mile or so up the river was always so hard was that I was not warmed up. My plan was to go downriver for about 20 minutes warming up and then paddle upriver past both bridges then back to my car at the lower bridge. How did this work out you ask? Well the river is hard the first half mile because the water is flowing freakin fast! And it is even faster south of lower bridge, or it was tonight. I went a long way in that 20 minutes down river, and it was a hard slog back up. I am sure the stronger currents are caused by the tide. Low tide 8 miles down river was right at sunset tonight. Good workout :)

Paddled for a little over three hours, no GPS along so not sure how far. My guess would be an extra mile, so that would make the total 7.