Quick Shoalwater Trip Report

This years Shoalwater Trip was another great one despite the howling wind. Everyone enjoyed the trip and each others company. The group consisted of six veterans and four first timers (2 women and 8 men). A couple of the newbies were completely new to the art of primitive camping from a kayak and I say this based upon seeing what they brought out there. I saw this enormous ice chest and couldn't believe that it was possible to bring something that large on a kayak even though I was standing there looking at it. I'm confident they learned quite a bit over the weekend watching the rest of us and when paddling back with their loaded kayaks in 30 mph winds. I myself learned that I had gotten used to this trip being attended by veterans and forgot to let the new people know very basic information like what types of footwear is needed because of the mud situation.

I think there could be rumors flying around and everyone is probably dying to hear about the trip back on Sunday. We will talk about it at our next meeting and I will begin working on a trip report but in short, everyone that went out made it safely back to Charlie's in more or less as good of condition as when they left. And, a majority (7 of 10) of us made it back on our own despite having to deal with wind gusts forecasted to be up to 40 mph.

I want to congratulate everyone for doing what they needed to do to get back in. And I want everyone to know that this trip would have been a complete nightmare for me as the trip leader if we did not have radios. Radio communications allowed me to know where everyone was even though we ended up being spread miles apart. I was able to keep sight of those without radios most of the time, but if they went out of sight for a little while I knew where to look and was able to find them. I knew when people were checking on each other and could tell that everyone was okay.

As I mentioned earlier, everyone did what they needed to do to make it back. Those who paddled all the way rested when needed and kept pushing. Those who knew they couldn't paddle back stopped and signaled to boaters for help or informed others that they needed to be picked up. Our radios allowed us to relay to each other all the way back to Charlie's that we needed another boat to go out for a pick up. Everyone kept me informed so I knew when they were picked up. Since I knew what was going on I was able to look for the boats and see my fellow PACK buddies pass by heading safely back to the launch. The most important thing was that nobody panicked, and that is why everything went so well. We are truly an impressive group of outdoor men and women.