I go through this with my wife from time to time, most recently yesterday. Though we don't have the severe cold here that ya'll do "up nawth", we do have dangers. One of the biggest is the danger of drowning, or capsizing and not being able to get to help in a timely manner because of the remoteness of the area. I enjoy drifting and jump shooting ducks. My favorite waterway is Brier Creek, what many would call a small river ..........swift and deep enough in most places to drown you. The way I drift, in a fiberglass kayak, does not lend itself to taking a partner ......... no room in the kayak. So, I go alone. My son meets me at the extraction point, we leave my truck there, and he takes me upstream a few miles to the insertion point, with my kayak.
I wait for weather like we have coming the remainder of this week, cold enough to freeze all the ponds in the area, which causes all the ducks to be on running water. The combination of swift areas, cold in the low 20s or teens, and the remoteness combine to lend a modicum of danger, I will concede. But, you consider the risks, mitigate those which you can, and if you're healthy enough, go kill ducks. Cell phone? yeah ......... but, good luck getting a signal down in there.
I don't know how many years I will be physically agile and healthy enough for these kinds of drifts, so while I can I am going to enjoy them. When I can't, I'll sit by a fire and read my hunting journal that I have kept for decades. (When I can't do that, maybe a grandson will sit and read it to me).
SRH
