I just love this time of year on the Sacramento River. There are many times when I hate to pull myself out of my warm bed at 6:AM, but the second my boat hits the water, my heart starts to warm my whole body up.
It is very hard to explain to anyone but the guys who meet me on the "early" Friday Morning Paddles. We usually catch sight of a beaver or two and there are always multiple geese, ducks, mergansers, heron, small birds and other animals. We stare at the animals and they stare back, as if to say; "what are these crazy people doing out here".
Winter flows on the Sac are usually around 5,000 CFS, which makes for a perfect up-river paddling flow. Paddling up rivers in sea kayaks is something that most paddlers have not yet discovered but I feel that it will become a very popular segment of our sport in the future. I can even see special kayaks being designed and built for just this activity. I might even be the one that brings it to the market. We'll have to see. For now we will trudge along with what we have and enjoy every second of it.
I can't help but think of the future when the current youth is paddling up river in special kayaks, with special names for every move and thing they do, and some old guy like me comes along and says, "in the old days we used to paddle up these rivers in Sea Kayaks". I can just hear them laugh and say, "yea, sure dude, like you guys used to be nuts".
Well here's to all of those pioneers of sports that we do today who didn't have specialty equipment! Thanks to you old Eskimo guys, we love you for this cool thing called a kayak that you invented!
Captain Penguin
