Proxigean Paddlers

After a delicious breakfast at the Sebago Clubhouse (photo top right), six full and hearty (or foolhardy) paddles embarked before 9:00 AM this morning, in 15°f air temperature, determined to find a high water passage through the salt marsh at the end of Ruffle Bar. With the proxigean high tide occurring just before 8:00 AM, we hoped the highest tide of the year would allow us to paddle into the salt marsh and right out the other end. The company consisted of Bonnie, Elizabeth, I(John), Minh, Pete, and Phil. The marsh crossing was not to be.

Veterans of previous proxigean tides remarked that this one was not as high as they had witnessed in previous years, suggesting the tide might not be high enough to paddle all the way through the marsh. While Bonnie and Pete paddled up the marsh’s main channel, the rest of the party continued around the southern end of Ruffle Bar, planning to meet up with Bonnie and Pete at the western end, if they made it through the marsh. According to them, they were not too far into the marsh before they started breaking slush and ice with their bows and paddled back out.

After paddling back through a head wind which produced some nice sized standing waves, two by two and one by one we started straggling into the Sebago dock a little before noon. We were cold and tired, had not seen any harbour seals, but were not defeated. With a glaze of ice on all our kayak decks, up to a quarter inch of ice on our spray skirts, and ice balls clinging to our dry suits (as demonstrated by Boonnie in the photo bottom right), we sauntered back into the Sebago club house from which we had departed hours earlier, to be warmed by hot coffee, Mary’s hot soup, a fire in the stove, and a few other Sebago members.

I have posted a much longer trip report on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.