Bay Minette Creek
Saturday, October 22, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil
Since we planned to drive to New Orleans today, I was off for a pre-dawn start to get back in time to leave by 8:30 AM. Due to the northern cold front coming in, I decided to head for the close confines of Bay Minette Creek to stay out of the wind. I arrived and put in at 6:40 AM, while the sky was just starting to lighten up a little. The water and air were both cool, with the protected water like glass.
I went for a five mile course, taking me through the s-turns of the upper section and down to the wider and somewhat straighter lower section towards Buzbee's. It was extremely quiet and peaceful as the sun came up over the east ridge. There was an early morning fisherman out on his small backyard pier casting out across the creek as I rounded the corner. He reeled it in quickly as I approached, so I would not get tangled in his line. Around another turn, a large dog was waking up the neighborhood as I paddle by and almost in his frenzy, jumped in after me.
I made my turnaround in 24:37 and 6.1 mph, staying under the 25:00 goal of a 6.0 mph speed. I knew the return would be a little tougher as there was an ever so slight downstream current to contend with. It was easy to check progress every half mile to see if I could stay above 6.0, as each 5:00 ticked off my gps watch. With only a final straightaway to go, I could see I was going to just come in under 50:00, with a return time of 25:14 and an overall time of 49:52 at 6.0 mph.
Since we planned to drive to New Orleans today, I was off for a pre-dawn start to get back in time to leave by 8:30 AM. Due to the northern cold front coming in, I decided to head for the close confines of Bay Minette Creek to stay out of the wind. I arrived and put in at 6:40 AM, while the sky was just starting to lighten up a little. The water and air were both cool, with the protected water like glass.
I went for a five mile course, taking me through the s-turns of the upper section and down to the wider and somewhat straighter lower section towards Buzbee's. It was extremely quiet and peaceful as the sun came up over the east ridge. There was an early morning fisherman out on his small backyard pier casting out across the creek as I rounded the corner. He reeled it in quickly as I approached, so I would not get tangled in his line. Around another turn, a large dog was waking up the neighborhood as I paddle by and almost in his frenzy, jumped in after me.
I made my turnaround in 24:37 and 6.1 mph, staying under the 25:00 goal of a 6.0 mph speed. I knew the return would be a little tougher as there was an ever so slight downstream current to contend with. It was easy to check progress every half mile to see if I could stay above 6.0, as each 5:00 ticked off my gps watch. With only a final straightaway to go, I could see I was going to just come in under 50:00, with a return time of 25:14 and an overall time of 49:52 at 6.0 mph.
posted by brint @ 8:54 PM
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