I mentioned a few posts ago that I paddled with my friend Jeff Hug. Jeff had never paddled out on the Missouri River before. He wanted his first time to be with somebody he trusted that also had experience. On that last paddle, we planned this one to get him out on the river.
We met early morning at the Blanchette ramp, a favorite take out of mine for training on the Missouri. There, we jumped in my car and went up to Weldon Springs ramp for a quick 20 mile paddle on the Missouri.
It didn’t take long for us to get into the rhythm of paddling on the river. We had a fantastic time catching up on life and generally having a great time.
We decided to go up a back channel protected by an L dyke and see what was going on.
The boat was trashed and also provided lots of garbage in this section. We picked up a few things and headed on. Somewhere shortly after this, I started feeling serious pain in my left eye!
While the photo above doesn’t look bad now, I could hardly keep my eye open. This soured the paddle for me. I’m not really wanting to remember it. I ended up washing my eye out at the take out twice and purchasing an eye wash after the paddle. It probably took 2 hours for me to be able to keep my eyes open. I was even thinking about going to the hospital. Still a good day and glad I got to paddle with Jeff!
Hogan Haake