04.11.08
It’s spring!
well its kinda spring… temps are dipping back down to freezing this coming weekend but its no big surprise, its Illinois!
This past weekend Bela and I split up and ended up doing our own fun things. He went up to Devil’s Lake with Ian to scope out some climbing areas for groups and get in some quality climbing of their own. It was a gorgeous weekend and they were glad to take advantage of that.
I signed up for a photo lighting class so i went to that in the morning and afternoon and then joined up with the williams clan for a 2nd bday party for Steven. We enjoyed looking at old photos, eating oysters (my first time), and just hanging out.
On Sunday Bela ended up doing a lot of yard work while i went out and paddled the Vermilion River. It was a beautiful day yet again. I joined up with Diana and Jack for a nice float down the river. We ended up playing in a few good surf spots but made sure we didn’t flip as the water was still a bit chilly. We ran into a few other paddlers, and most notably a group of rec kayakers. There were 4 guys dressed in jeans and t-shirts toting along 4 coolers, grilling gear and i don’t think any PFDs. As you will probably guess there was some carnage to view as they swam 4 times (that we counted). the last time we ended up helping with the rescue seeing as how the 1 paddler and the boat kept floating down the river for at least 5-10 minutes. After many attempts we finally got the guy as well as the boat to the riverside. The other paddler was 100’s of feet upriver and now out of site. Diana decided to get check on him and she found him just standing on the side, stripped down to his boxers, staring at the water. She snapped him out of it, grabbed all the extra stuff and stuffed in his wet clothes in the cooler and started heading towards us. He just followed her like a little puppy. We were a little worried about hypothermia but turned down the emergency blanket we offered and decided to start a fire. So we left it to fate and continued our paddle. All in all a great weekend!!
