Today I paddled 8 miles! John Sadler, an old (yes, old! :)) family friend invited me along with two of his long-time kayaking buddies to join them on the very flat, calm waters of the Potomac, far above Great Falls. Mom helped out transporting us by coming along with us to the put-in point, then followed the truck driver to the take-out at Algonquin Park, and brought him back to join us. It was a blast, though my arms felt like they would fall off by the trip’s end! It was a beautiful fall day – the water was so clear and pretty shallow (about 6 feet in most places) and the river so wide. To my surprise, the fall leaves weren’t really on display here – too warm? but we glided over lots of grasses and fish below us, and several blue herons swooping along. We stopped for lunch along a tidal creek, then followed it up about a half mile as far as we could and turned around. Some kind of huge bird circled around above us that really excited John…says they don’t see them often. And toward the end of our trip, we were delighted to see an eagle keeping an eye on us from the treetops, so we just floated and nearly lay on our backs in the kayaks to watch it watching us. I think we were gone about 5 hours, round trip. I could do this on a regular basis…most enjoyable, and great cross-training for cycling.