On my lucky-find flotsam day, I came across this paddle embedded in the eroded shoreline of the channel. I tugged and jimmied to get it out and saw that it was a rental paddle from Alder Creek Kayak, a shop I know well.
I looked online and saw that such an Escape paddle was worth about $100. It had the store's phone number written on it, and the number "220," which originally I thought was the rental stock number but came to discover that it's the paddle length -- 220 inches.
I phoned the store to see if they wanted it back. Well, yes, since it was still in perfectly good shape. So I said I would bring it back in exchange for a story. I dropped by their almost-riverside shop and the story, as told to me by Meloy Ady, is that a rental paddle gets lost probably every few weeks during the high season, maybe a few a month. "Most don't come back." he said. The renter has to pay for it. No one would know how and when this particular one disappeared but he guessed probably last summer. He's worked there five years and recognized that the handwriting on the paddle as his.
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