Bay Minette 10 mi.

Sunday, December 18, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil

The stormfront passed through last night, but left some residual north wind, so I headed back to Bay Minette once again. I wanted to get in a hard 10 miler and didn't want the distraction of chop out in the open water of the bay. I got started at 7:45 AM under overcast skies, 43 degrees and no wind by the Bromley bridge.

The paddle downstream started out through a low hanging mist with a couple of blue herons and snowy egrets leading the way. I passed close by a cormorant, who was busy fishing and didn't want to be bothered by me paddling by only five meters away. Once I reached miles four and five where the creek widens and straightens out, the wind began to ripple the water, but wasn't much of a factor.

My mile splits on the way down were 9:42, 9:35, 9:27, 9:23 and 9:15. On the way back, I was paddling into the wind for the first two miles and hit 10:13 and 10:09. Once into the narrower channel with no wind, I finished up with 10:03, 9:59 and 10:23 through the tight s-turns in the last mile. The total time was 1:38:13 for an average of 6.1 mph.