As I prepared to launch onto the Tuckahoe Creek, a truck pulled into the parking lot with a man and two 5-6 year old boys. The first thing the guy did was put PFDs on both boys and then prepared to unload their fishing gear and canoe. We both got sidetracked and began chatting.
He called to one of the boys walking near the creek that he would get his feet wet and wouldn't like that at all. A minute later he repeated himself to the boy. A minute after that as we chatted I heard "Oh Geeze!" and the guy was past me in a flash. I turned and one of the boys was floundering in the water. The guy pulled him out and I got a towel and we soon had him stripped and wrapped as he cried in fright.
The creek was very deep and with a one knot current, the boy would have gone under for sure and may have been difficult to find. One of my first coherent thoughts was "I'm glad he put their PFDs on first thing."
They went off to get dry clothes and I launched into the creek and turned upstream into the current. This was supposed to be a nice paddle along a narrow creek to Tuckahoe Lake, 5 miles away.
After passing under 4 bridges in quick succession, two of them old railroad bridges, I found myself in a quiet wilderness. Many of the trees were just beginning to show their fall colors. The normal scenery was varied with some lighter green, some red, some purple, some brown and a little yellow, breaking up the normal darker green of the forests.
The creek is very deep, even with the outgoing tide and only 50 feet wide. This brings everything in much closer and everything is magnified in intensity. The stillness of the water's surface provided an excellent mirror, reflecting the colors right back at me.
Except for a few turtles soaking up the rays, I was by myself. After a couple of miles I started running into lots of downed trees. I got over, under or around many without problem but then hit a dead end where I didn't feel like getting out of the boat to drag the boat through. My little escapade yesterday in trying to retrieve my glasses left me with a runny nose and feeling just a little blah so I didn't want to get wet again today.
I backtracked and tried a couple of other channels to no avail. Not a big deal. I had spent 1.5 hours paddling 2 miles or so and simply spent another 1.5 hours drifting back with the tide, relaxing and just enjoying the quiet and the scenery.