It’s hard to believe we have done this for 12 years but yesterday we pulled it off again. We had 8 people to show up for this year and they were: Bill, JP, John, Steve, Bruce, KAO, Sandy and Carolyn. We had 4 to show for our morning breakfast at Marge& Rays Seafood Rest. there on Sandbridge Road. The weather was cool but not very clear, with clouds in the southern skies but no rain to start the day. This year I had decided to change the format a little for the triathlon, instead of biking, paddling and hiking as we have done most every year, I took out the paddling and replace it with archery.
We all met at Little Island City Park at 9:00 a.m. and were on the road at 9:20. A few of us didn’t even take a rain coat because it was not going to rain until about 3:00 P.M. The wind was not strong and was blowing out of the south/east and felt good as we biked through Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge down into False Cape State Park. We did stop at the gate of False Cape to let Bill take a few pictures and again at the Visitor Center for only a few minutes to say high to the park staff and thank them for allowing us to use the archery equipment.
We arrived at the Archery range about 10:15 and everyone helped to set up all the gear for the range. With so many helping we had it all ready in a few minutes. Only 5 could shoot at a time so I asked for five to start us off. First I tried to give them a little information about our bows and how to string a bow because some had never had a bow in their hands before. Safety was our first concern and this was what they tried to instill into us at the class I took back in June, and I tried to do the same with everyone. We have a whistle to blow to picket up the bows, to shoot the arrows and to go get the arrows after everyone has finish shooting. Everyone did very well for shooting their first time with a bow and a few did better than the instructor. With a 10 foot back stop behind the targets we only lost 3 arrows over the top out into the woods. This was not too bad when altogether we shot about 150 times. I can look for the arrows this winter after the bugs and snakes are gone.
We finished at 12:00 noon and put everything away and hiked out to see the ocean and it was a fast hike out because of those pesky mosquitoes. Everyone decided to eat at the ocean because the wind kept the bugs away. After lunch we headed back to our bikes and biked towards the Visitor Center to get an ice cream and this was when the rain started to fall and it really did. We got to the VC and waited about 45 minutes eating our ice cream and watching the rain come down. Finely we decided that the rain wasn’t going to stop and all headed out in the down pour but luckily it was a warm rain and Sandy even though it was fun riding in the rain. Guess what? After we loaded the bikes in a parking lot that had at least 3 in. of water in it, the rain stopped! It was another great Triathlon and all had fun on another Tuesday Group outing.
Bruce
View Bill's pictures: https://www.flickr.com/gp/bbi/vh8ZE3