An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

It's three miles due east along the bike trail from my house to work. But as I have mentioned before, there exist these weekday morning cyclist coffee clubs and a few of the members of my Freezing Saddles team made plans to meet at the Thursday Vienna coffee club at around 7 AM. So, to show team spirit and get a little workout in besides I hopped on my bike at dawn and set out in the 20 degree air at dawn to ride eight miles west - the wrong direction, that is - to have coffee with a group of people whom I had never before met but who are my virtual team mates. Yes, that made good sense. At Caffe Amouri I must recommend Caffe Amouri in Vienna for their hazelnut scones and big mugs of dark roast coffee. Yum! Plus, it was good to meet Mike, Mike, Rob, Elizabeth and Chris, and Vincent, as well as the other cyclists who were there. We sat for about 40 minutes and then headed back east. I managed to keep up with the "real" riders through Vienna but I fell to the back...

It was something of a revelation to be reminded how great kayaking can be. My recent paddling experiences have been sporadic and not entirely positive. I didn't paddle at all in January (except for the pool). In December I went on an unnervingly foggy paddle followed by an uncomfortably windy paddle. November was Chickahominy, which I only semi-participated in (and I paddled but didn't camp), and a paddle where my hands got so cold I had to turn back early. It's been one semi-bummer outing after another. But today was glorious. Five of us (and Tall Tom, Tim, Don, Linda and I) launched out of Marshall Hall in Maryland. It was in the 30's - chilly, but not outrageous. The river was calm and the winds were light. Linda had organized the trip with Don as the leader. I had never met Don before, but I knew that he's one of the nutcase badasses who participates in events like the Florida Water Tribe Challenge, which requires a week of paddling day and night (he said h...