On Tuesday morning, August 9, I was focused on some application development at work. I didn’t wrap up as early as I wanted, and then I had to get lunch and walk my dog. I left for the river about 30 minutes later than I had hoped, and then disaster struck!
My launch on the river is about a 15 mile drive (25km) by the shortest route, but that route had a road closure so I had to detour … or so I thought. Google maps showed the road closure between me and the road that takes me to the river, but that was wrong. It was on the other side of that intersection, so the long way that I took to get around the road closure actually brought me to a dead end and I had to backtrack. The detour that I shouldn’t have taken, and the resulting correction cost me 20 miles (33km) and about 30 minutes of time.
The tide would be at it’s lowest around 3:00pm and I arrived at the launch at 2:20pm. Once the tide reaches it’s lowest point, it starts coming back in; usually pretty fast. I had at least an hour’s paddle to get to my rendezvous with the mud. I was going to arrive after the tide started coming back in, with virtually no time to play in the mud.
So, I decided I would do some exploring along my route to my destination. I convinced myself that the trip would be enjoyable, even if I didn’t get to play in the swamp mud. In the process of exploring along the way, I did get pretty muddy. I started out with jeans and soon had to strip down to my underwear so I could rinse off more easily when I had to get back in my boat.
I probably killed 30-40 minutes, exploring previously unexplored places, then I made a beeline for my intended destination. When I arrived, the tide was coming in, but it had been very low and it wasn’t coming in very fast. I didn’t waste any time getting myself into the mud so I could enjoy what little time I had, before I had to clean up and paddle back to the launch.
Thanks to a piece of bamboo I repurposed as a swamp-selfie-stick, I was able to get some pretty good exploration video. The trip was definitely not a total loss. I wish I could go out today, because the low tide right now is just amazing. If I hadn’t been committed today, I would have had my pick of any mud hole and I would have had hours to play. Given the hot and sunny conditions, I might have gotten too much sun, but I can’t think of a more exciting way to get a sunburn.