Kayaking The Sopchoppy River

On Saturday I took a lovely and surprisingly long trip down the Sopchoppy River with the Broderson Brothers. They grew up as river rats like me. Their parents owned a marina on the Chesapeake Bay and also retired on a Gulfstar in the keys.
Ward looks happy to be out on a Saturday and it was before the football game so he wasn't yet nonplussed! Ward and Rebecca host the Sunday MLC suppers. His wife was out of town so he was free to go with the carefree singles!

We saw this hornets nest and a couple of others on our way. The fall foliage reminded us of the northern fall season. The cedars were red and many oaks displayed fall plumage as well.
Peter bought this sweet little place on the upper Sopchoppy and he has begun work on it. It has an easy beach launch which just needs two large trees cleared, unlike many of the steep launches along this high banked river.
The upper Sopchoppy has some encumbrances which we managed to avoid as you see here, with only a little extra caution.
Here is Peter enjoying the view. I was able to keep up with the guys although we kept up a good pace on the lower part of the river since we didn't want to get to the city park past dark. I had been out six hours the day before and my arms are pretty strong at this point. I have also been lifting weights in the garage gym I set up recently. My arms are only a little sore today.....
This is Peter's lovely little place. He has a resident pileated woodpecker and we saw many woodpecker holes and stripped bark on the river.