The Big Darby Creek paddle consisted of a small contingent of four in two canoes, including Tom Borchelt, Nick Kline, Dick Horn, and Dennis Versele.  It may require a check of the archives, but is believed to be the first sanctioned CCB outing without the Grand Poobah, Scott, in attendance.  This section of the Darby can at times require walking the canoes, but with recent flooding, it was not a problem.  Debris from the flooding could be seen in the trees as much as ten feet above the surface of the water.  Much of the Midwest experienced record April rains and has had much of the same in May, contributing to near-record flooding of the Mississippi. 

 

The scenic beauty of the river did not disappoint, as usual, but we did not see as much wildlife as during the previous outing on the river.   A coyote was seen on the way to the put-in and herons, ducks, and geese were in abundance while on the water.  The trip went quickly with a moving average of 3.3 mph which was primarily due to the faster moving water.

 

Scott, Dennis was along on the scouting trip.