The Howling Moon Paddle







          Howling Moon Paddle..    
October 22, 2010

Photo By; Mark Workman
It was a prefect October Night.
The Moon was full.
The sky clear and cool.
The Thornapple River was dark and foreboding yet beautiful under the light of the full moon.

Photo By; Michal Ann Benedict Enders

The GRASP kayaker's gather.
For some the last paddle this year, a last chance to paddle with friends.
For others it's just another run, with many more runs to come.

Photo By; Michal Ann Benedict Enders

We gathered under the setting Sun.
Talking, laughing having some fun.
Waiting for everyone to begin our run.

Photo By; Mark Workman

Moon rise upon us, it was time to begin.

Up the river we shall go, for an hour or so.

Some fast and some slow ever onward we go.

Silently gliding by home and hill.

Passing under the freeway bridge's, the quiet was broken by

 the roar of car and truck tires passing over our head's. 

Back into the quiet we went.

Passing by a golf course quietly waiting to be played.

Under a railway bridge onward ever onward to our final destination. 

Photo By; Michal Ann Benedict Enders

All soon arrived to the point of our return. Halfway by distance, two-thirds by time.

Gathered together under the fifty-forth street bridge the kayakers began to howl. You would think a pack of Wolves, or dog's maybe a Coyote or two were howling at the moon.

Photo by; Michal Ann Benedict Enders

Just what would the locals think? Would the police be called? Only to arrive and find nothing but the moon and still clear water's.

Photo by; Michal Ann Benedict Enders

Kayaking back with the rivers flow, quietly slipping back into the darkness we go. 

The sky clear and cold, the air damp with dew.

The moon full over our heads.

Lighting our way home.

One by one we to return to our world. 

A world of light, of noise and chaos.  

 Waiting and wanting to go on just one more run.

I'm ready lets do it again.

Night Paddle by Me

Night Paddle.

　

Serene

Calming

Darkness

*

Silently

Waiting

Beneath

*

Brings

Dangerous

Surprise

*

Unwary

Unwise

Paddlers

Solitude by; M. Workman



The Platte River



Solitude

The state of being alone.

Solitude

Is only a state of mind.

Sometimes you can be as

alone

in a crowded room as you are on a empty river.

To become one with the natural world around you.

To become one with your kayak and the river.

To feel the power of the river’s current and the calm of it’s eddies.

To fly with so little effort over the river’s surface.

Gliding quietly by as the world stands still, for just a moment or two.

One only needs a little solitude.

The Beginning; (A Love Blooms)

My Love for the paddle sports began back when we were going to Strawberry Lake when I was but a child. My brother-in-law Richard had a fiberglass and wood canoe that he built by hand to become an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Which is the highest level you can attain in the Scouts. You could not only paddle that canoe but you could sail it as well. Richard set it up and built all the different components needed. 
Strawberry Lake was a no motors allowed lake, small, spring fed, super clean lake that had great fishing which my dad loved and swimming which we all loved. Richard would take my sister's and I out for short trips around the lake. Where we might see a deer maybe a Eagle or a hawk and of course all kinds of fish and other different critters on these trips. That is what hooked me.
One of my favorite place's to camp and paddle as a kid was at Ludington State Park, in Michigan. You have a huge inland lake (Hamlin Lake) that has a number of little islands to paddle around. A short section of river that connects Hamlin lake to Lake Michigan. Of course you have to portage around a dam that made the lake but no problem. Endless paddling possibilities
As I grew older we did different river's and lakes. We did a couple of runs on the Looking Glass and the Maple rivers the Grand river as well as the Flat river. In my teens I found girls and motorcycles and paddling fell to the wayside.
After my tour of duty in the Army I got back into paddling with a friend of mine named Randy. He had a two man rubber raft we would do different parts of the Grand River with. Randy was a fisherman so he would fish while I paddled. Then we got the cleaver idea to buy a cheap used canoe. Which we did for $25.00 and of course it leaked from every seam. Once we found and stopped all the leaks we made our plans to paddle the whole Grand River from east of the city of Jackson to Lake Michigan in one summer. We made it as far as Lansing in a week. Cold, wet, tired and hungry with half of our gear either missing or damaged and a canoe that leaked worse then it did when we bought it. We called Randy's wife to come get us and that's where that story ends. For now.  

Wabasis Lake with GRASP October, 17 2010

Wabasis Lake and creek in Kent Co, Michigan is one of my favorite local area paddle's. It is the largest lake in Kent county and over half of it is wild. The entire north shore is free of development and completely wild. The launch is open to the public and a part of a very nice county park.
This day I am going on my first run with the Grand Rapids Area Sport Paddlers group or GRASP for short. A very nice group of people who I met for the first time today. Out of eight of us who came today there where five sea-kayak's, three of which were hand made and three recreational kayaks. Mine being one of the rec boats. Today I had my 12' Dagger Blackwater kayak. A good boat for inland lakes, rivers and larger streams.

For October 17th we had excellent weather. Only partly cloudy skies and at the start of the paddle temps were in the high fifties getting to the low sixties with a wind of five to seven miles an hour out of the west north west. Which did aid us in our crossing of Wabasis lake to get to Wabasis creek. Coming back against the wind was a different story.

Wabasis creek starts at the North East end of Wabsis lake any where from six feet wide to as much as thirty feet wide in spots. Many sections of the creek are passable to both paddle boats and small power boats. Seven lakes make up the creek system before it drains into the Flat River between Greenville and Belding. Wabasis lake, Little Wabasis lake and the five lakes that make up Chain Lakes.

Today was about the Fall colors and spending time with people who share my love for Kayaking. And a fine group it was indeed.