Saturday, January 2, 2010

5th consecutive New Year's Day float


Dan, Kent, Pat, JD, Jim M., Jim H.

Consecutive month 50 as well as the 5th consecutive New Year's Day float are in the books as 6 hearty soles braved temperatures in the teens and hit the WBDR, floating from Pioneer Park to Ring Road. The regulars (Dan, Kent and Pat) were joined by JD (don't look now, he has a cute little 3 month streak going himself), Jim M. (a returnee previously prominently featured in the blog entry "Duper Boys Jim, not the Polar Bear Club" http://kayakman30.blogspot.com/2008/04/duper-boys-jimnot-polar-bear-club.html#comments ) and Jim H. (a Duper virgin). Regular readers of the blog are well aware of the initiation rites involved in anyone's first time float and may be thinking that Jim H. got a pass due to the severe cold and its possible effects on certain parts of the body not used to seeing the light of day. If there was any thought of a free pass on this frigid day, it was quickly put to rest when Kent glanced over at Jim and matter of factly stated: "Hey, newbie, you're coming with me!" Pat and Dan nodded their heads in agreement, knowing that Kent was the best choice on this particular day. Jim M. and JD gave a little shudder, glad that Mother Nature had been a little kinder to them on their initiation day.

Despite the temperature, the trip was excellent as the crisp air, cold beers and good friends made for a very enjoyable float, leaving some of us wishing we had left the cars at Knoch Knolls so we could stay out a little longer. Pat and Kent were down right giddy with the effects that the hand warmers had on their not so frozen digits. Could we have solved our one main issue with winter yakin'? I hope so. As we pulled into the launch area at Ring Road, the sense that something was ending too soon came over the group and instead of getting off the river, we all just sat in our yaks, enjoyed another beer and did what guys do best...BS'ing about everything and nothing at the same time. Nice start to 2010 boys......see you in February if not before.

FYI...last year's NYD's float was Jim M., Pat and Dan

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