The flotilla skimmed along the river like a rainbow-colored water bug with countless, spinning limbs: Splash-smack, splash-smack, splash-smack. Eleven women in 11 plastic kayaks paddled their way upstream, cutting across shadows cast by the late August sun.

Their leader on the Contoocookwas Barbara Hanchett: blond, tan, 60-something and in command of a dark blue boat. She's led dozens of trips like this since founding an outing club, Always an Adventure, last fall. In less than a year, 160 people, most over 55, have joined her to climb mountains, ride bicycles, paddle, practice yoga or stroll on the beach.

But Hanchett's job involves a lot more than counting life jackets, collecting gas money and booking hotels.

She helps the newly-retired reclaim some playfulness, escorts the recently-widowed back into their lives and shows the previously unathletic the value of a little sweat. In return, she's learned how to age with spunk and glory.

"What is retirement?" said Hanchett, who's 64. "Retirement was kick back and do nothing. But we've found that a lot of us still have to work. We still want to move."

Last year, Hanchett had every intention of retiring after more than two decades leading outdoor trips for the Concord YMCA. But her most loyal followers had other plans and more than 70 signed a petition asking Hanchett to start her own touring company. She had no business experience, but couldn't say no. The paperwork has been a little shocking, but Hanchett says it's been worth it.

"People wanted to me to do this," she said. "And I'll keep doing this until I can't."

On Friday, the club met like always - at 9 o'clock sharp in front of the deserted Bradley's on Fort Eddy Road. Members paid $4 each, and piled into cars and mini-vans. Hanchett's green pickup led the caravan, a half dozen kayaks stacked in the bed like Technicolor cordwood. Every few miles, she glanced in the rearview mirror, checking that the others still followed. Sunshine glinted off a pair of silver loons hanging from her earlobes. (The birds have been around for 60 million years, cavorting in lakes and narrowly escaping extinction, so Hanchett figured one would make a suitable mascot for her company.)

Fridays are almost always for paddling trips, either nearby or up north. Tuesdays are bike tours and Wednesdays are for hikes, picnics or trips to the beach. One weekend a month is dedicated to a more strenuous version of these activities for members who still work during the week.

Hanchett also organizes overnight trips to ski areas, summer camps and, this fall, Ireland. In between, members meet for yoga or weightlifting.

"They're playing together,"Hanchett said. "Sometimes this is the first time these people have had the opportunity to play."

The club is coed and welcomes well-tempered adults of any age ("Negative people don't last long out here," Hanchett said.) But the paddling trips are usually all women over 60.

Last week, the river was languid, but the conversation was not. The group included a few retired nurses, a yoga instructor, former business owners and teachers.

Almost everyone was somebody's grandmother. They talked politics, swapped diet tips and described the miracles yoga had done for their joint trouble.

From under a pith helmet, Scottie Kenyon, 68, let out a sharp, loud whistle just like her father had taught her when she was a little girl. Back then, she lived nearby, took summer baths in the river and paddled its length in an oak and canvas canoe. She's had her kayak for nearly four years, but seldom used it until joining the outing club at the beginning of the summer.

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