Tundra_man, that is terrifying. It could just have easily picked a worse blood vessel or been a little larger.

I rode today. Saw some deer. Pushed, but not too hard, as tired from paddle board yesterday.

The paddle boards were a gift from my wife for my birthday a few weeks ago and this was the first outing. They came with extra blades so the paddles can be configured kayak style (and I might have preferred a plastic kayak but I'm hardly going to tell her that). So long as you don't actually stand up they require basically no skill to take out on a calm reservoir. I did try standing up but had no idea about paddling technique. My canoe experience of j-strokes was incorrect. Reading up now you just need to reach forward with the paddle and claw yourself in the direction of travel and switch sides all the time. We had an electric pump borrowed from a friend and it was absolutely necessary. These things are supposed to pump up hard to ~10 psi, and doing that with the giant plastic hand pump they included would have required a real gorilla by the end. I had an idea we could ride to the lake with these things which came with a backpack, but I really don't know if a cordless inflator like one for an air mattress could hack it

I have a big aluminum Grumman canoe. Maybe I should finally get rid of it. It barely ever gets used, like every other year or less. I am keeping it for nostalgia. My dad bought it to woo my mom.