On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 04:28:56 GMT, "Jon C"
posted:

"MikeSoja" wrote in message
.. .

I have no idea if I'm representative or not, but paddling one leg up
the Ohio River, and taking it fairly easy on the leg back, I can
easily do over twenty miles in five or so hours. I've gone 25 miles
in six hours, again, half against the current, and half with.

I'm extremely impressed with that. I recently kayaked around Manhattan, the
tide with us the whole way.. I believe the trip was just under 30 miles.
The 40 or so of us did it in just under 9 hours including a pair of 45
minute breaks.

I do work pretty hard going upstream. There's no percentage in
drifting backward, so I keep it moving.

I do 80% of my paddling on rivers, almost always first against the
current, and then back. Invariably it takes me about the same
amount of time each direction, mostly because I tend to drift on the
way back, trying to sneak up on birds and other wildlife. The 25
mile trip I mentioned above, the upstream leg took me 2 hours and 55
minutes, while the downstream took me 3 hours and five minutes. If
I had to guess the speed of the Ohio River in summer I'd say
somewhere between two and three mph. With all the rain this Spring,
there have been a lot of days when it's been running too fast for me
to fool with.

Mike Soja