When Karmen comes to visit, adventures are bound to take place. We decided on kayaking as the grand plan for the weekend of July 11, and despite the accuracy of the forecast of rain, we bravely pressed on. (The rain didn't actually start until we were getting in the kayak.) And then, we were alone on the river. Uncharted waters lay before us, and we shivered with anticipation as many brave explorers before us must have done. (Actually, I guess these waters were already charted. We just didn't have the chart. We did get some verbal directions from our kayak rental guy, but they turned out to be less than complete to our way of thinking. Or maybe we just didn't remember them all. Or hear them all correctly. Or something. Anyway, we did finally make it to our desired destination, much to our relief, and I'm sure to the relief of the kayak rental guy. He didn't want to lose his kayaks!)
See the raindrops on the water?
The rearguard
Beautiful!
Paddling with purpose
We saw a number of large birds as we floated along.
Um, maybe this is not where we're supposed to be?
It was a dead end with a bunch of stumps.
It's terrifying panic-inducing slightly disconcerting to hit the ones that are hiding out of sight under the water. (That's the voice of experience speaking.)
The pictures that would have probably been the most entertaining did not get taken. Lewis and I got stuck for an eternity about ten minutes or so on a sandbar. We had been warned that it existed, but because we did not know where we were on our route, it took us quite by surprise. Ordinarily, I would not have been opposed to getting out of the kayak and pushing us out into the deeper waters. However, due to the gigantic sea monster that chose our arrival on his sandbar to make a loud and splashy movement (likely exit), we both decided to stay in the relative safety of the kayak and "oar" ourselves out. (This is where a video would have likely been worth watching.) As it turns out, the sandbar was rather a large one, and we weren't sure which direction we should go to try and get off of it. Finally, using sheer determination, quite a lot of elbow grease and some pretty fancy schmancy teamwork, we freed ourselves and headed around what we discovered was the last bend in the river to our destination. Turns out we weren't quite as isolated as we thought. There were all kinds of people on that part of the river! We spent the next few minutes wondering how many of them had enjoyed watching our attempts to escape the sandbar before deciding we really didn't care. Free entertainment for them! All in all, we had a great time and spent the next several days nursing our sore shoulder muscles. :)
Here we enjoy our well-earned post-kayaking treat - Sno Cones!
(As we feel sure Lewis and Clark must have done when they returned from their own voyage)
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