Bayou Fountain — The Lost Posts — February 14, 2015

What better morning than Valentine’s Day on the bayou?  The last of The Lost Posts, now, with more souvenirs.

It was about as normal a day on the bayou as you get.  The water was low, but not too low.  The weather was cool, but not too cool (almost 50°F at the 8am launch time).  And appropriately for Valentine’s Day, everyone was busy so I was out on the bayou alone.  (Okay, Mike was double-booked with a Frenchtown hike and I didn’t actually call for help, as it was going to be an easy and fast day.)

I headed down the bayou at more than my usual speed, as it seemed like a great day to have extra time in the afternoon.  There wasn’t much work to do, anyway.  I spent most of the time just enjoying a nice, relaxing trip down Bayou Fountain, but I *did* find yet another quest fresco bucket.  This one was much older than the set from last November, so it wasn’t new litter, and I was somewhat entertained.

A few weeks earlier, when Mike and I had cleaned up old number 15 again, I was on the way back upstream from Bayou Manchac when a kleptomanitree stole my sole extension handle for the big winch.  This was rather unfortunate, as while I have spare handles, I only had the one extension handle (and it’s rather nice to use).  Well, I’d marked and waypointed the drop spot, and with the bayou nice and low, I figured I had a chance at recovery.  Sure enough, when I paused and looked around through the water, there was the red handle waiting for me.  (Note to self, add recovery line to extension handle.)

I made excellent time all the way down to Bayou Manchac.  Less than two hours to the turn back upstream.  The trip back was quick enough, as well, and by 1:30pm, I was all loaded up and heading out.  Conveniently, Rachel happened to be somewhat close with enough time for lunch before heading off to work, so I got a wonderful day on the bayou, a couple souvenirs, a recovered extension handle, *and* lunch with my Valentine.  How can you beat that?