Host: Wendy & Tom Borchelt
Attendees: Natalie & Scott Borchelt, Nick Kline, Dennis

Pics Here

The annual winter Mad River canoe trip was memorable, as usual.  We had a few more bodies this year, with Tom and Wendy, Scott and Natalie, Nick, and Dennis filling out three canoes.  When we hit the water around 10:30 a.m., the snow was blowing sideways.  Fortunately, the Mad has high banks so the wind was not as bad as anticipated, but the snow fell for much of the day.  Fortunately, we finished about the time it was turning from wet snow to rain. 

We had extremely high winds a few days earlier, which brought numerous trees down in the county, so we were afraid that we might encounter some rough going.  Actually, we ended up with only one logjam and Scott made it easy on the rest of us by climbing onto the trees and pulling the canoes to the other side where we were waiting.  We observed the usual birds such as herons, ducks, and kingfishers along the way, but nothing out of the ordinary.

We retired to Tom and Wendy’s in the evening for some gumbo and Tripoley.  On Sunday, Tom, Scott, and Nick shot sporting clays at Mad River Sportsman’s Club.  Scott dominated the competition, with Nick finishing somewhere in-between, and Tom doing a good blind-shooter’s imitation.