Very tactfully said!
Got out for a nice 6 1/2 mile loop today. Air temp 52, water temp 51, cloudy, and nearly calm wind. Quite comfortable, really, and especially enjoyable after an extended paddling layoff due to cool temps, wind, rain and other obligations. Only one other boat out there the entire time, a musky fisher using an electric trolling motor.
Waterfowl are fewer now; just three geese, a pair of swans, and a loon in the neighborhood today. I hugged the shore to add a little distance and interest to the trip, and also to stay mostly within âstand-up-and-walk-outâ water depth just in case. Unfortunately, today was probably my quit kayaking for the season day because rain is forecast through Friday, then snow possible Saturday, and 5 days with highs in the low-mid 30s after that. 
So I decided to mothball the boats for the winter. I could have finished ⌠but didnât.
Thereâs still a chance for an unseasonably warm spell in November, isnât there?
Best to be prepared and keep my my casual cruiser (a Bell Rob Roy) accessible, right?
It could happen, couldnât it?
Please say yes.
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Not only yes, but absolutly. I do think there is one more to squeeze in. Snow out west. Steve got his water going just in time. If we didnât have change, everything would be the same all the time. Nothing to look forward to and nothing event to remember.
Your last sentences sound like me. Pleading for just a few more good paddling days. I suspect I did my last one on Oct. 20, though.
A major obstacle here is that the best places shut down well before freeze-up occurs. And all the reservoirs get severely drawn down from summer through November. The little res that remains legally open for paddling all year is already even tinier. It and another place resemble puddles with huge rings of dirt rising around them.
My analog to your Rob Roy is the Jackson Sidekick WW kayak that was retired to rolling practice and bird watching jaunts. I quit roll practice when I began paddling a surf ski, so now it is my little ducky birding boatâin sheltered water and calm days only. It fits in the back of my truck; that makes it perfect for spur-of-the-moment decisions to make hay while the sun (briefly) might shine on a hoped-for Indian Summer day.
Shall we count the days until April?
This is where we were last year today without our kayaks and i am planning to go back the first sunny day with snow to take some pictures.
(Lake Bled)
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I really do appreciate living on the coast! We are expected to hit near 80 degrees this Saturday. Well timed, as we should be getting some Hurricane Tammy swells, although she has been petering and stalling around Bermuda.
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As much as I like cold weather paddling, it doesnât always like me! Iâm getting toward the end of my wet splashy trips. Iâll probably paddle a couple more weeks and then take a break. Iâve already slowed way down. My problem on ww runs is that I get splashed and experience some cold water exercise induced asthma. I also start hacking and coughing a whole lot.
I can always head south to florida to get a paddling fix.
A couple of weeks ago I flipped and rolled up. After that, I switched to the drysuit. I got pretty clogged up- congestied so I knew it was time to increase the immersion wear.
Short days, layering up, and cold water make winter paddling less appealing. When I do winter paddle in WV, I paddle small streams where the shore is nearby. The birch river, buffalo creek in clay county, 2nd creek, and upper reaches of the elk river being some of the runs I do if I donât get a florida âfixâ and just end up staying local.
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I was going to start tucking the armada away this week but then we got an Indian Summer reprieve with a 6 day stretch of sunny 70 F days and calm water. I volunteered Tuesday with a crew painting out graffiti on Pittsburghâs wonderful Hot Metal Bridge over the Monongahela River and these were the views east and west. I really wanted to be out on that water but I did my civic duty instead. Just recruited one of the friends who was on the paint crew to join me tomorrow on the Mon for an upriver and back day trip.
Amazing changes in this river valley when I consider what this once was when we first moved here in the mid 60âs. The bridge itself originally carried railcars full of molten steel from the smelter side of the river to the casting and rolling mills on the other. It has been repurposed as a twin car bridge and separate broad bike and pedestrian crossing that connects rail trails on both sides. And 50 years ago the tallest building there along the downtown skyline was the Gulf Oil Tower, that hypodermic shaped little spear to the right of the menacing black pillar that used to be US Steel and is now UPMC (the bloated health care octopus that ate Pittsburgh). Back then both sides of the river valley, from downtown to as far as you can see in the other shot, were completely covered with steel mills belching sulfurous fire and fly ash smoke with ore and coke filled barges rafted up along concreted embankments (archival photo below from slightly downriver from the bridge) . River was horribly polluted but now they hold bass-fishing tournaments here. You can paddle from here all the way to the Gulf of Mexico if you donât mind locking through a lot of dams and dodging big barges. The Mon is a major feeder to the Ohio River (where it joins the Allegheny at downtown) and thence meets the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois.
I could keep going out as the cold progresses since I have a dry suit. but none of my local paddling partners is also thus equipped which limits my range.
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Mohave, you are contributing to overload on my bucket list with all your fabulous photos of alpine lakes! I hope I can stay spry and alive long enough to make it to some of these places.
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Come on over 
My husband is not that crazy for it and just indulges me like I do flying with him.
The beauty of the place does really fire me up.
You know Washington has some possibilities for us also? Itâs called âThe American Alpsâ in the Cascades I think. We should be back in another year.
Lake Diablo
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The PNW has tended to evade me, almost feels jinxed. The first trip I planned was in 1998 and my reservation with Northwest fell right in the middle of their pilotâs strike. My travel companion couldnât reschedule their vacation so I ended up going with other friends to the Canadian Rockies instead (and got snowed on).
Next attempt a few years later (which was to include 5 days of kayak camping on the Vancouver island coast with an outfitter) I planned months in advance with a departure date of September 12th, 2001. So much for that one. Did finally make it out there in the Fall of 2009 but I was solo and only did some kayaking day trips around Vancouver and never made it to the Washington interior.
I eventually headed with my then beau (and reliable hiking, kayaking, canoeing and biking partner â he was good for that stuff, but not much else) for the PNW back in 2012 with the intention of doing all 4 activities during our 2 week trip there. Second day there I slipped on a wet stepping stone on the trail to Cape Flattery, fell onto a rock buried in the pine duff and cracked my left proximal humerus. All I could do was hike after that (with my un-displaced extremity bound to my chest) â walked up to and around some gorgeous lakes, feeling very shore-bound and frustrated. Except for the ferry rides to Victoria and then through the San Juans, I did not get out on the water that trip.
I do hope to make it out to the PNW in 2024. I had great plans for a lot of travel after I retired in 2016 and had a good start at my vagabonding, including trips to the UK, Andalusia and the Sierras, until covid quashed everything for a couple of years, forcing more cancellations.
Slovenia looks like a spectacular place for scenery and outdoor exploring. Browsing through my streamable travel channels on the TV (since I dumped regular cable service) I found a couple of documentaries on Slovenia and was gob-smacked.
I had an invitation a few years ago from a fellow folding kayak aficionado to visit and paddle in Montenegro, a place he and his family loved so much they had bought a cottage there on the Bay of Kotor for return trips. Lost track of them when the folding kayaks forum site closed down.
Some of my boats are better traveled than I am. My most capable folding sea kayak (Feathercraft Wisper) I bought used from a pair of married RNâs who had used Wispers to spend an R and R month kayak camping around the Greek islands and Adriatic. They were selling both the solo boats (in pristine condition) to invest in a tandem folder. Iâve paddled that kayak across a range of North American waters, from Indian Arm inlet in British Columbia to the Saguenay Fiord in Quebec, but I have yet to travel overseas with it.
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Diablo is the one place I really, really wished weâd been able to paddle before moving out of WA. Drove through that park on a kayakless trip and marveled at the scenery, and what looked like a nice, paddler-friendly launch area.
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I canât say exactly what the water temp will be when I quit for the season, but this morning it was 16 degrees with a 20-25 MPH wind and snow driven sideways.
I decided not to go out.
(Maybe tomorrow)
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We slipped in under the wire this year.
A few days ago we got our water well going for the 1st time in nearly a year. Tuesday I got all my firewood in.
Today (90 minutes ago) the propane truck took 3 tries to get up the hill in the snow, but he made it and we got our tanks filled up.
NOW we are ready for winter ------- and thatâs good because it came this morning.
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75 in SW MI today but I think szihnâs cold front arrives late tomorrow and we may get snow on Halloween. I never really know what my winter paddling opportunities will be but the St Joseph river sometimes stays open all year and even when it freezes it sometimes opens up again.
Today I paddled to the sound of migrating geese.
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I love to hear them flying over in the dark. Takes me back to my hunting days.
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Thereâs no practical water temp (above freezing) for calling it quits for the season.
For me, the real question is: âHow often do I want to go through the hassle of getting my cold weather gear on and off?â The answer is I kayak about half as often in the cold than I do when itâs warm out.
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Two guys out in a canoe this morning wearing heavy field coats - the kind that weigh at least 50 lbs when wet - and no visible PFDs. Air temp was 19 and water temp was 39.
Looking for a Darwin award, perhaps?
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