Half Day off

Thursday, Peyton and I took off to Lexington for the afternoon. We first stopped by the swollen Maury River which was just under 3,000 cfs when we arrived. I was hoping to bump into some other kayakers, but the scene was empty. We decided to trek a couple of miles west to Mill Creek, a class II,III creek about 5 miles west of Goshen. We arrived to the creek just as the department of inland fisheries was doing their annual trout stocking. They would stop every 50-100 yards down the creek and throw four or five net fulls of trout into the rivers. There were several lcuky fisherman waiting by the banks. It was such an exicing sight to see as these fisherman were now fishing a stream that had probably a 100 times more trout than when they first arrived. I decided to join in the fun, so I put my gear on and paddled a couple laps on the creek while Peyton set shuttle and took pictures.

After a couple laps on Mill Creek, we drove back towards the Maury. Still no paddlers. I decided it was too good a chance to let go, so I hopped on alone and paddled the sections between and below Devil's Kitchen and Corner Rapid. Peyton picked me up at the bottom of the run and we headed to Lexington for a warm cup of coffee.
When we arrived in Lexington, I decided to call my "rat",William, from VMI. For those of you who might not know, every senior at VMI is assigned to a freshman or two. The goal is that the senior shows the freshman, or "rat", the ropes and mentors him through his or her first year. My rat, William, is now a senior and is actually getting married in a couple of months. We grabbed some coffee and walked through W&L over to VMI. Definitely brought back memories. Hard to believe its been three years. We met William just outside barracks and went in to see his room and ended up going around barracks to see a couple of my roomate's rats from senior year. We ended up taking three of them out to dinner in Lexington. It was really great to catch up with these guys and to see the trainsitions they've made since rat year. It wasn't the first time I'd seen them all since my senior year, but being in Lexington, and at VMI definitely added an element to the interaction. Looking forward to going up there again in a month for their graduation. All in all, great afternoon off.