Are We There Yet? Terry's reflection of Saturday's Run

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"This is not Terry,
it's just an image
I used to go with
the captionI have taken the opportunity to reflect back on Saturdays run and think that perhaps it could be summed up in one four letter word, “GRIT”, and if you just ran a variety of alternative words through your mind then you should be ashamed of yourself.

Thanks to a half-wit navigation engineer, we had what could only be described as a comical transit to the 421 park to meet our group for the launch. It was great to welcome aboard Mike, Butch and Deborah for their first encounter with HRL Paddlers. These guys will surely add some additional flavor to our recipe for fun on the water. My food reference here is mainly due to the culinary chat between several of us during one of our stops. Deborah chatted up some mighty fine southern eatin’, unfortunately I ended up attempting to bed down a might fricish appetite with a ham sandwich instead of some ham hocks. This newcomer trio and Montie opted to pull-out after the first 5.4 mile segment and exited at the Huntsville Access area. I hope to paddle with this bunch again soon.

We did however manage to keep the roster healthy with the fashionable entrance of two more brave souls that were willing to endure the remaining mileage with us. Kay and Jan joined the convoy of paddlers that were scattered among the ever present rocky protrusions on the water starved Yadkin.

Things were going well under the circumstances and we encountered several consecutive mild rapids that we used to slingshot us down stream. This pace would soon prove to be short-lived and we soon began to paddle nearly stagnant water. After several miles of seemingly endless flat-water stretches, I apparently began hearing mirages of traffic that I perceived to be to the nearing of I40.After rounding numerous bends and discovering nothing but more river, I finally quit attempting to use my instinctive gauge to determine our position and subsided from my promising alarms that were meant to encourage some of the weary paddlers among us.

We did eventually capture a glimpse of the I40 bridge and took view of the finish line. I noticed that I actually felt pretty good after this monumental trek for our group. I am proud to say that our regular attendees handled this journey really well. I would guess that this is due in part to the conditioning that we receive from regular runs on a weekly basis.

Make no mistake about it, this was not “easy” by no means and any paddler among us that experienced some discomfort should hold their head high for even having the guts to attempt such an adventure. Neal himself even discovered limits to what an individual can endure on a long paddle, especially under historical conditions.

This was not the longest paddle for me as an individual but, it did remind me of just what it takes to hold a moderate pace when distance becomes your enemy. I enjoyed meeting new paddlers and hope they tag along again soon as we continue exploring new waters.

HRL Paddler
Terry