The Vermont Paddlers Club

A gorgeous fall day on the Hudson.

With only three of us it was a fast job of organizing and we were on the river right at 10am. Well in front of all the rafts and other riff raff. It was still cool when we put on - maybe 50 but the sun was out and warming things up fast. It eventually hit the mid 60s.

Speaking of fast. The Indian. What a hoot. Read and run and as always, and over much too soon. Everyone had a great time on the Indian, especially John as this was his first run down this Adirondack classic.

With the recent rain and the bubble we were running on a 5.0 gauge reading - or about 3,000cfs. A nice level with much more water than the normal summer/fall levels.

Everyone had fun splashing down the warm up rapids and then on to Blue Ledge and The Narrows. Clean runs by all.

We then dropped into One Mile, which saw the first fish counting incident of the day. John got munched by a hole and powered up such a fast roll that he went right over again. The next attempts were not as successful and we had our first swim of the day. After a few minutes gathering all the pieces parts, we were heading back downstream.

The next bit of fun happened at Soup Strainer where Richard had his turn looking at the watery world from within. He was near the bottom anyway so the swim was of little consequence. It was time for lunch and we stopped on the river left shore right after Soup Strainer. Full warm sun and plenty of entertainment - the rafts and other kayakers had finally caught up to us by this time.

We powered down the rest of the river. Even the flat water section went along pretty well with the extra juice in the river today. We were at the take out before 3!

A quick shuttle by John and Richard allowed Jim to catch a few zzzzz's. Then it was pack up and head back to the Green Mountain State all satisfied with another Hudson run.

jimp