I’ve been wanting to tube all summer so I thought my August OWA event would be perfect for it.  After being above 80° for a week, some rain came in a few days ago and brought today’s temperature down to 65°.  Not great, but it was still sunny half the time, so we went anyway.

We left a car at Tremblay Road in Waitsfield and drove down to the Covered Bridge to hop in the Mad River.  It’s less than a 2 mile stretch of water but a local outfitter told me it would take 2-3 hours.  I was skeptical but decided to give it a shot.

It was cloudy and windy when we got in the water, and the water felt very cold.  Then it was just kind of swirling around under the bridge and we had a hard time getting going.  After some kicking and paddling, we broke free and started floating down the river.

It felt great when the sun was out, less so when it was hiding behind clouds.  We saw plenty of wildlife: a deer, some ducks, a couple of herons.

The river was a lot more shallow than I expected, despite the recent rain.  There were multiple spots where we had to get up and walk because we kept getting beached.

It did end up taking over two hours to float that far.  There were a few people sitting where we got out who were debating doing the same stretch of tubing and asked us if we were happy with our decision despite the weather.  Yes, definitely.