The Backpacker demo day — May 10, 2015

PaddleBR’s mission is to improve access to our local waterways, improve conditions on them, and improve awareness of them.  The Backpacker’s demo days make it very easy for people to try out a bit of paddling, which makes us quite happy.

After Friday’s Sunset Paddle with BREC Outdoor Adventure and Saturday’s expedition on Bayou Fountain for some paddle trail maintenance, what better way to cap off a great weekend than an afternoon paddling on University Lake?  We figured we’d take the opportunity to enjoy even more paddling while conveniently promoting PaddleBR.  We brought a box of PaddleBR fridge magnets for The Backpacker’s sign-in table, and of course, we had the PaddleBR sign on the back of the canoe.

Seeing all the people launching in brightly-colored boats, paddling around the lake, swapping for other paddlecraft, and just having a good time was quite fun.  I also took several trips to paddle along the shore of the park and along Stanford with the PaddleBR sign, which brought a few people over to try paddling and to have conversations about paddling in our area and about PaddleBR.

Not everyone on the lake was paddling the whole time, of course, and there was even a sailboat making good use of the wind.  (I was yet again tempted to start engineering a way to turn the PaddleBR sign into an asset in the winds instead of a liability, but who am I kidding — I enjoy more difficult paddling.)  A few of the demo day paddlers did partial impressions of sailboats, but none went quite so far that they needed to be towed back, although I had a tow line handy, just in case.

There were quite a few people who came through and paddled during the demo day, and many more PaddleBR fridge magnets were distributed.  (It’s almost time to make another batch of 600, would you believe!)  Having the opportunity to promote paddling and PaddleBR without having to do all the logistics ourselves was actually rather nice.  We’re more than happy to spread the word about The Backpacker’s demo days, BREC Outdoor Adventure’s paddles, and anyone else’s opportunities for people to try out paddling or get some time on the water.

(Also, some of you who have talked to us at recent paddle events may have heard about the as yet unannounced extra special night paddling event we’ve been working on.  It’s still a “secret” for now, but we just tested the electrical-side pieces this week, and we’re going to do a “dry” run soon to test everything in the field.  For more than that, well, you could lower a rope or a tree branch…)