Gee wiz.... Only three HRCKC paddlers on this New Year's Day! I'll give you the benefit of the doubt - too many hangovers?

Well, it was Al Grenley, Jim Lyons and myself (all with canoes - of course) who did show up on this spectacular First Day of 2012 and the HRCKC's first paddle of the year. The weather was perfect - bright sun with temps in the 50's - so after arriving at the put-in on Rt. 565, unloading the boats, doing the shuttle up to Oil City Road - we finally got underway. The water level was a bit low but more than acceptable, very little wind and a few blowdowns - but never had to out of the boats to get around them.

We passed a few hikers and exchanged New Year's greeting and actually passed one other paddler traveling upstream - I think he was as surprised as we were to see other boaters. Stopping at a cove which had iced up overnight, we played around breaking ice with Jim shot-putting some icebergs across the frozen surface. The beavers have been busy on this river lately so we did see quite a few trees being gnawed down. Stopping at Bassett's Bridge for lunch, we spent a half hour there discussing the "kayaker winter wimp factor" and how it must be left up to us hardy canoeists to carry on the traditional First Paddle Of The Year - just like the early days of the club when it was all canoes (there, I got my dig in).

Continuing north, we encountered the "Rapid" with Al playing it up for the camera (sorry for the poor video quality - handheld, point-and-shoot camera on extreme telephoto, boat moving, etc. etc. - good enough excuse?). After a 4 hour and 8.5 mile paddle we arrived at Oil City Road, strapped the three boats on my Jeep and headed back to the put-in.

As a side-note: I stopped off to visit our buddy Neil at Neil's Sports Emporium just down the road from the put-in and was glad to see he is recovering well from his knee replacement. He has some great deals on end of year boats in stock if you are looking.

Below is the link for the photos of the trip with a video at the end. Select the 720P setting instead of the default 480P in the lower right hand corner for the best playback quality. Happy New Year!

https://picasaweb.google.com/FatElmoCanooShack/WallkillRiverNewYearSDay2012#5693081145667269986

Martin