Kayaking

Yesterday I had a choice to make. I could either go on a lovely fall hike with a bunch of friends and new acquaintances, or I could go kayaking with my sister and b-i-l and maybe some others. I’ve been hiking, lots. I’ve never been kayaking. The decision was fairly easy. So today I went kayaking.

The day started out at 40 *F. That wasn’t promising. Thankfully, it warmed up just a tad by the time we made the half hour drive to the spot on the Connecticut River where we were meant to start our adventure. I even took off my jacket. The six of us started off down the river with me trailing woefully behind. It only took me a few minutes to get the hang of the small boat, but the river was a bit unpredictable. One moment you’d have a swift current going in three directions, and the next there would be no current and you’d be floating over six inches of water and knocking your bottom on rocks.

We messed around and took our time, and it turned out to be a lovely day. I didn’t capsize once. I did, however, get soaked, when the boys thought it was very clever to splash around with their paddles. It wasn’t as amusing as they seemed to think, but fortunately by then it had warmed up to a tolerable temperature and the water dried quickly.

A little more than half way through our jaunt we found an island and went ashore to eat our lunch. My sister and I went for a walk around the island and ended up going for somewhat of an icy swim in the river. Of course, being the geniuses that we are, we forgot that our phones were in our pockets before we plunged in. Thankfully it was too cold to stay in long so not much water had time to damage our phones, and they are both still working just fine. (Knock on wood – watch, they won’t work tomorrow…)

When we got back to the boys, they decided they wanted to poke around the island as well, and since we thought they’d be maybe 20 minutes, my sis and I decided to sit on the stones in the sun and dry off until they returned. When nearly an hour had passed and my sister had napped and we’d both sunburnt, we decided to push back off without them. They’d decided to walk all the way around the island which took them more than an hour. So we paddled around the island, which took some considerable arm muscle to paddle against the current on the way back round. We eventually found the boys and we took our time from there to the end of our kayaking rout.

All in all it was a fun adventure, and I’d love to spend more time on the water. I got a spectacular arm and upper body work out, and an even more spectacular sunburn on face arms back and chest. But I’m not complaining, as it’s probably the last temperate day of the summer. Plus I got to watch one of the boys in our group fall out of his kayak and spend 15 minutes attempting to dump the water from it. Totally worth it.

It’s been a long day and I’m finally home and beyond hungry. I’m just glad to be able to take advantage of the little opportunities afforded me in these last few months before the Big Move. I’ve always wanted to try kayaking, and now I can knock it off the list, and put it on the list of things to do again.

It’s been a good saturday.