Several 1st's Today

Today was ...

• first road trip for a paddle
  
• first highway speeds for kayaks on our truck
• first group paddle with folks from the Catawba Cruisers (Lake Wylie, Rock Hill SC and downstream)
  
• first time using a mailing group to meet up with folks
• first time on Mountain Island Lake

We met Ray, Dorothy, Mike, and Andy at the North Canoe Access in the Latta Plantation Preserve - hooking up via the Google-based paddling group that Jeff pointed me to in a comment on an earlier post. I was stressing out due to rain the night before preventing us from loading the boats on the truck on Saturday and bullet point #2. We had to do everything that morning. The 7am alarm wasn't enough lead time for us to leave at the desired 8:30am. We made the 9am real deadline and arrived at the put-in at 10am. The group was already in the water and waiting to see if we'd make it. Fortunately, nothing went awry on the road. I would have been more than a little annoyed if the straps on this fancy rack get-up weren't tight enough to keep a kayak from going airborne at 70 mph.

Conversation on the water went very well. Everyone was relaxed and having a nice time. Andy, Mike, Kathleen, and I had all bought boats in the last few months. And Ray and Dorothy had multiple boats apiece! We went west and south on the lake then east towards (and up) Gar Creek. I was surprised by the number and size of big rocks on the shore and IN the water. Mountain Island Lake seems somewhat bigger than Moss Lake but less developed. Here are some of the pictures taken - for hopefully, just the first of many trips with this group. It was cloudy, so the pictures are on the dark side. By the way, Kathleen can't wait for her splash pants to arrive tomorrow. She's sick and tired of carrying beach towels to cover her lap.

Ray in his red Dagger Atlantis (a 17 footer), Kathleen, Dorothy in her recycled plastic Old Towne Cayuga 110.

Mike and Andy - notice their excellent taste in kayak manufacturer. Necky Manitou's dominated the day's paddle: Mike in a Sport, Andy in a 14 (footer), and me in a 13 (footer).

Big rocks on the shore.

What look like little rocks - but this is out in the middle of the freakin' water!

A beaver almost did this tree in. Another Hugo and this one's a goner.

UPDATE (Jan 13): A friend of mine has a self-described "money pit" on the cove to Gar Creek. He crushed my fantasy by saying the water here is actually quite shallow so those rocks, in the water, aren't quite as magnificent as I thought.

More (and better) pictures by Ray and Dorothy.