I was the sole participant for this Sunset race. I wasn’t worried as I had my dry suit and know this section of river well. I don’t often go out in our kayak as I prefer the company of others, but when you’re by yourself, you do what you have to do. Here I am before starting out.
I set the kayak in the water a bit and stepped in. Unfortunately I didn’t set it in quite deep enough and the boat was grounded on the ramp. I didn’t want to push off with my paddle as its quite expensive, so I used something “cheaper”, my hand. Of course its below freezing out and my hand is quite cold now and I have nothing to dry it off with available. I was on the water going upstream for about 5 minutes when I realized that my fingers on my wet hand were going numb.
I choose to call it quits early and protect my hand from trouble. It was nice to get out on the water, but I need something to dry my hands off even with a dry suit on.
Hogan