Our annual BBQ and Bats paddle this year got a bit complicated due to the weather on 8/20/16.
They were calling for storms all day, so out of the original 34 who signed up 9 didn’t come, but we had 6 that I wasn’t expecting so it still left us with 31, some of whom were from NERA.
8 of the 31 came but decided not to paddle and went home as it rained while we were eating in the pavilion, and my wife and Nichole didn’t paddle but stayed, so we were down to 21.
7 of those decided to put on at the ramp closer to the cave, so 14 of us paddled over from Shellmound.
The rain didn’t last long and it was a lot cooler and calm by the time we were ready to put on for the 1.5 mile paddle over to the cave.
The bats came out on schedule at sunset and I was pleased to see that the numbers seemed higher and that the worst seems to be over with the white nose fungus that’s been killing bats all the way down the east coast for the past 9 years. The survivors seem to be resistant to it.
Once it got too dark to see the bats emerging from the cave we headed back over and loaded up. On the way home a light rain started so we got lucky with the timing
For those who didn’t get to see the bats there’s always next year!
