Never ending summer

It's easy to forget that we are already into November. Seasons in Florida don't mean quite the same thing they do in New Hampshire.

A good friend of mine recently sent photos of his last canoe and kayak trip of the season. Funny to think that people back home have put their boats away. Sure there are exceptions. I know some wild men who paddle every month of the year. In the depths of winter they bundle up in dry suits and brave the river rapids where the swift water doesn't freeze. Those guys are nuts, even by my standards. Too easy to flip and get swept under the ice.

Later fall weather up north can have some pretty dramatic swings. One year we canceled our end of the season canoe trip due to 6 inches of snow. Well, we thought we canceled. By the next weekend temperatures were in the high 50s and sunny. Four of us canoe camped overnight on an island. It was a beautiful weekend.

When my lovely wife and I first came down to Florida we had a canoe on the car and did an awful lot of paddling. It was pretty amazing. Sure beat canoeing among the ice flows. The only weird thing is that when we got home and went on our annual river trip I was still keeping an eye out for alligators. Every half submerged log set off alarms bells until I remembered the nearest alligator was over 1000 miles away.

-Sixbears