Seven brave souls showed up for what looks like to be the 1st annual Picnic & Moonlight Paddle on the Platte. John, Lois, Karen, Ian, Tracie, Melissa and Steve. Karen Mueller offered her family cottage “Crystal Blue” on the shore of beautiful Crystal Lake for the picnic and lodging.
We did a potluck, which included Italian grill chicken breast, brats, fresh corn on the cob, taboule, coleslaw and cantaloupe. After cleaning up we headed out for the river. Pat Somers, who is not a paddler shuttled all of the drivers back which was great so that there were no boats being handled twice in the dark.
We launched at 8:50 with the light fading fast, we all had kayaks including Karen inaugural trip with her new Tampico 135L and Melissa in her pink “Barbie” boat complete with a Japanese lantern velcro’d to the bow. The temperature was 82 degrees. The water was probably the same , perfect for our adventure.
We started with no headlamps and really didn’t turn them on until we had passed through Loon Lake and entered back into the river. As it got darker and we heard, but not necessarily saw the wildlife (herons & beavers), Melissa states "if this wasn't on purpose, I'd be scared". We proceeded through the fish weir and we all remarked how quickly we were moving compared to when we do clean ups or are paddling with kids.
Some of the group are using the lights continually and some are using them intermittently due the fact we do have a ¼ moon and some starlight. As I come around a bend, I find John, Ian and Lois in the lead saying “it’s pitch black, I can’t see which way to go”. I tell her that the river bends to the left and John tells her that she is going back upstream!
We proceeded to the end without incident and were amazed that the trip that we thought would take us about 2 hours, we completed in an hour and ten minutes. We all loaded our boats and headed back to Karen’s except for Ian who left for home. When we got back, we snacked on “fake “mores, it was SO hot, they were soft from the heat and ice cream. We all agreed that it was a very cool trip. Karen reminded everyone multiple times that the trip leader (me) wanted to cancel the trip the day before after seeing the weather forecast of guaranteed thunderstorms throughout the day. We have learned by now, never trust the weather reports.
The next morning we had a breakfast feast and then headed our separate ways after agreeing that this was a great trip and must become an annual event!
Submitted by Steve Somers