Out of Sorts

I've been feeling out of sorts a bit lately. Two weekends ago I went to help a friend stack his firewood and when I came home, I was feeling the cold coming on. It has been tenaciously hanging about for the past week as I've been trying to do my job and keep moving along with my life. Last weekend, I had things to do around the house and needed to help my father with things at his house. I'm not whining, mind you, (OK, maybe a little...) but I'm missing some of my favorite paddling.

Fall paddling is wonderful in the Northeast, United States and is some of my favorite. There can be occasional warm days until about mid October. The bugs are gone and the foliage is colorful. Most paddlers have put their boats away as they think it will be too cold to get out on the water, so there are fewer people to contend with at the put-in. A tart, fresh, crisp apple makes a fantastic afternoon snack out on the water and the warm sun on you feels that little bit nicer than usual. Migrating birds are passing through on their way South.

I haven't gotten as much paddling in this year as I'd like as it has been quite a busy one and we've not had much rain so the water levels have been low. As I was helping my father last weekend, I was looking out the back windows at two of his canoes in the back yard that really drove home the fact that I need to paddle a bit more.