Due Upon Receipt

I paid dearly for my slothful exit from Big Bear Creek. Trusting the forecast to bring more of the same easy miles as the run up to and past Kelowna, I mosied down to the beach at the ungodly hour of 8 and saw that the wind had already filled in from the north and the chop was steepening.

A flurry of profanity solved nothing. Clearly, I was going to get what I deserved and then some. It was brutal work I don’t hope to repeat anytime soon. My only respite for the first three hour was this cliff face. Stapled to the shore and ducking behind every point, I chanced upon this. Best of all, it gloriously warm to boot.

Another saw of paddling dead upwind against the chop that was stopping me in my tracks had me gassed. Cold, tired, and hungry I thought there would be no way that the afternoon’s weather would be any different.

Ah, how good it is to be wrong. Within an hour of setting out again, the wind began to die. The next 30 minutes saw the wind completely evaporate and the surface of the lake turn to glass. In my life I have never seen such a large body of water become so still.

Exhausted, looking out over the absolutely still surface of the lake, I considered my debt paid in full. There are moments, crystal clear moments when the hand of God hovers a hairs-breadth away.