The Vermont Paddlers Club

Immoderately fun. We met at 9pm under a full moon and warm air. We walked barefoot

over the blacktop through downtown and we could hear the water in the falls below

and we could smell the Otter Creek in the dark. Every river has a smell. You know

that.

The water felt warm on my bare arms in the dark at the put-in. We paddled out

of the shadows and down toward the falls.

The moon gives softer light. You know what i mean. I drifted down under the bridge

through the water -- warm, like pond water, and we eddied out.

I went first. I peeled out, cut around something -- a log -- and started looking.

I saw it, the lip, coming -- fast, faster, and i shoved off into the dark of the

vermont night. pushed off.

I landed flat, hard. My friends heard the impact from up above. But it was like

landing in warm snow, white in the moon light, and you wouldn't have known it

was me, it was still dark enough. You really must try paddling at night.

It was great. We all eagerly went back for a second run. This time I went last

and watched all my friends shove off from the lip and drop away. That is something

you really must try at night too.

This sport reminds me of sex -- you need other people, you meet and do something that you couldn't (well, safely, in our case) do alone, and you have an infinitely pleasureable time doing it. Often you arrange to meet total strangers...and this time it was at night, so it felt like we all stole off in secret from the takeout back to our lives. Hell Yeah!