An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

OK, commuting on I-270 doesn't fit this blog's normal theme of outdoor activities but I had to make an exception for this picture - a spectacular rainbow appeared over Rockville on my drive home the other day. This sight would have been worth violating Maryland's ban on use of handheld devices while driving - but of course this picture was taken from the shoulder. Sure. Really. Hopefully it's the lord's sign that we're going to somehow be saved from the freaky weather we're having these days.

I've written before about the fact that people ask me how it is that I don't get bored paddling the same stretch water again and again (as well as my observation that I've never gotten such comments about the never-changing path I take for my morning run). The fact is that like those photo puzzles they run in the Sunday Washington Post , there's always something different. Trees flower and burst into leaf. Ducklings appear, grow into ducks, head south for the winter. It's calm, it's choppy. Interesting vintage cars appear at the marina. I bump into friends. This week we had a singular event - a super moon. A super moon occurs when the moon is closest to the earth on its elliptical orbit and is full besides, making it appear larger than usual. A more technical term is a perigee-syzygy of the earth, moon and sun - but you knew that already, didn't you? Super moon, super moon, I wish I could fly like super moon. This year's super moon convenie...

Today I finally did a trip I've had on my mind for a long time. There's a benefit to one-way shuttle paddles - you park a car at your destination point, drive back to put-in and since you're only paddling one direction you're able to do twice as long a trip. The disadvantage of the shuttle approach is that at the end of the trip you have to drive as far as you've paddled to get back to your car. When I did Ralph's Patuxent paddle that meant retracing three days worth of paddling (50-60 miles) crammed into someone's truck in order to get me, my kayak and my car all back together again. The beauty of Mason Neck to Pohick is that it's around a peninsula and so while it's 11 miles of kayaking the put-in and take-out are only a couple of miles apart. Tall Tom and I met up at 7:30 AM at Pohick Bay (as is our wont, we were both early). We swapped his kayak to my car while a doe grazed on a nearby lawn: Prelude to an Afternoon of Kayaking: A Fawn ...

Friday Seven and a half miles is not that long a distance. It's easily bikable. For runners it's only a little bit more than a 10K. By car, it's almost nothing; I commute almost three times that far every day. But swimming 7.5 miles in open water? Now, that's something, and it takes a darned good athlete to do it. So I was very interested to meet the swimmer with whom I'd been paired as a support kayaker for the Potomac River Swim. I've done swim supports before, but in all of the ones I've done the kayakers act as sheepdogs, herding the pack of swimmers along and patrolling for problems. For the Potomac Swim, by nature of the distance and open water conditions, swimmers are paired one on one with support kayakers. The kayaker guides the swimmer and carries any food, water or other supplies the swimmer might need. I carpooled down to Point Lookout Friday night with my neighbor, fellow kayaker and frequent carpool companion Jen. As is typical f...