With an impending full moon and no recent rain, the afternoon low tide was likely to be pretty low. The wind was blowing pretty hard, which threatened to create a wind tide, but I figured it would be nice to go for a paddle, even if I couldn’t find any mud.
The wind turned out to be a real challenge for this out-of-condition old man. I tried to maintain a strong but sustainable cadence as I labored against a strong headwind. I did get breaks from the wind, as the river snakes back and forth. I had a 2.5 mile (4 km) paddle to my destination.
When I arrived, I encountered an unexpected obstacle. It’s kind ironic that I had packed a lot of gear for this trip but the one thing I really needed, I didn’t have. That was my machete. The grass had grown up since my last visit and my naked body was no match for the sadistic saw grass. By the time I made my way to the mud, I was bleeding in multiple places and I had lost much of my enthusiasm.
I did go in the mud (as you can see in the pictures), and I tried to enjoy myself as much as I could. I only set up one camera to record the event. Once I finished, I had to make my way back to the creek through the tall grass to clean up, then I had to go back to get the camera, and finally return to the boat. By the time I was back at my boat, I was a bloody mess. I still had time to sink some more, but I just wasn’t up for another pass through the gauntlet. If I had brought my machete, I could have cleared a path, but alas, I did not.
The paddle back to the car was also an exercise in endurance, but needless to say, I made it back and my arms got a great workout.
Hello Doug…
The photos are enticing…hopefully you’ll have a bit of time to produce a video of this adventure.
Hello Doug…
Seems that you are getting just a bit of rain! Hope all is well and dry.
The rain is not helping me to make mud videos. I hear from people who say, “you’re getting a lot of rain; that has to be good for mud”, but clearly they don’t understand my situation. Water is never in short supply.
We had some pretty good low tides for a while, there, but that pattern seems to have passed and the heavy rains definitely aren’t helping. What is really depressing is that the forecast is for more rain and rainy conditions for the next week, at least.
It looks like I might be able to shoot in the clay pit or the mud pit in the next week or so, but I have very little hope of finding any exposed mud in the estuaries.
I started to edit the video from my last trip, but the video is pretty boring, in my opinion. I may have to just collect the interesting bits and release a short video (on PornHub?).
I might just have to find a new hobby.