By John Little, Missisquoi River Basin Association
Three Sunday’s in a row in Northern VT, everyone of them sunny and relatively warm. OK most of the year, but in November? I have lots of memories of sitting indoors while it spits snow or rain, or both with some wind thrown in, thanking my lucky stars that I’m in by the fire. Those are the days that even make correcting look like a great activity! At any rate, yesterday was another great one to be out on the water. I got a call from Dr. Louis Dandurand in the morning. Our schedules rarely coincide well, but he wasn’t going to the ER, and both our family’s were self sufficient without us. Soooooooooooo, what else but paddle?
But, let me tell you about this guy. Not only is he an Emergency Room Doc, but a great paddler, and an inventor. He is a top notch telemarker, and designs, promotes and sells the Telebulldog step in telemark binding. He’s always working on improvements, and whenever we go out back country skiing, he’s always trying to get me to try out his latest new piece.
At any rate, we went to do the Missisquoi between Richford and E. Berkshire. The river was up, and it was auto-pilot style paddling, where you do not have to worry about hitting much, and can drift along yacking and taking in the sunshine, and planning to get our two 13 year old daughters to go on one more trip with us next summer. You know, before they think we’re just old trash that stinks no matter what you cover it with! The only things on the river were Great Blues, Mergansers, Blue Jays flying back and forth with throats stuffed with food of some sort, and a smaller falcon of some sort. That one wouldn’t sit still long enough to get ID’d, but that’s allright. It was such a wondrful day, that we even passed a guy sitting on a bucket down by the river. sitting in the sun, and sipping on a beer in the mid afternoon sun. We asked if he’d caught any fish, and he said he wasn’t bothering. Should I keep the boat out in the yard still? I’m going to risk it, in the hopes of catching one more day. If I jinx it, then it’ll be time to get out the telemark skiis and go sliding. Enjoy all, and Happy Thanksgiving! John
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