Keystone Kayakers

In my last post I said nothing was going on, well now there's stuff! A couple weeks ago Mike got a huge group together to go kayaking down the Colorado River. There's a little town called Webberville about 40 minutes from here and there's a place on the river that rents canoes and kayaks. Mike got 10 people together for the trip! Only four people had to rent kayaks and it was only $20 flat fee. I thought that was resonable. Michael and I brought our own paddles (which I LOVE) but the guy gave us the rest of the stuff. Anyways, the way it works when kayaking a river is that they drop the cars off at the bottom and then drive back up to the top to 'put in'. Then, we basically just drift with the current until we reach the 'take out' spot where the cars are. It's really not all that physically demanding - you just paddle to keep yourself straight and out of the TREES LINING THE RIVER. What? Keeping out of the way of the overhanging limbs? Surely you jest! Well kids, let me tell you a little story about the Keystone Kayakers. Everything was going fine in the first hour. We had all scattered a bit down the middle of the river but were still fairly close. There was a spot where the river turned a bit and the channel narrowed. All of a sudden, we hear that Lynn got knocked into the water by some overhanging branches - she hadn't noticed how close to the shore she had gotten. So, while we are all turned around watching to make sure she's ok, other people got swept into the trees by the current too. I hear Annette say that Michael's in the water too, so I paddled over to help. I grabbed his paddle so he could focus on the kayak and getting back in. The current was so swift, you had to grab everything quickly or else it would be downstream before you knew it. Then, maybe a minute after I grabbed Michael's paddle, Annette yells to me to look out. I turn around and there's a HUGE overhangling limb. Now, this isn't exactly white water rafting, so it's not like it was rushing at me. So, I saw it and thought 'oh no big deal, I'll just brace my arm against it and stop myself.' Well, yeah, that stopped ME, but it didn't stop my kayak which continued with the current. Yep, I fell in too. I was able to feel the bottom of the riverbed where I was, but the current was so strong, I couldn't stop and stand up. I was able to grab the two paddles and my kayak. Then Annette came over and grabbed the paddles from me so I could hold onto her kayak while she pulled me to the shore. I've never been swimming in current before, and I'm so glad I had my life jacket on. That really made a huge difference. By this point, I had no idea what was happening with everyone else. I was just trying to get out of the current and find a place on the shore shallow enough for me to get back into the kayak. Annette paddled me over, and one of the other guys who had already fallen in and gotten back into his kayak came over to help me get back into mine. At the end of the farce, we realized that 6 out of 10 had fallen in, and 1 (Mike) had jumped in to help the rest out. But, since no one was injured we could all laugh about it. The only items we lost was my water bottle and a small towel I had in my pocket. Everything else had been strapped to our kayaks. Fun times, fun times. I would so do it again!

You may be wondering why Michael and I bought paddles. Well, I'm not ready to plunk down $700 on a kayak, but I would spend $150 on $200 paddles that were on sale. The paddles at the rental places are heavy and don't have the guards to keep the water off your hands. I decided that crappy paddles were impacting my enjoyment of the outing, whereas a rental kayak wasn't a big deal. So, we bought the paddles and are enjoying it a lot more. The paddles are so light and the one I got fits my hands a lot better than the rentals. I'll probably buy a kayak next year, after I see how much I go this summer. But, I'll also have to buy a car rack/mounting system to transport them, so there's that cost too. Michael has it all figured out on what we need to buy....just don't want to do it yet.

Yes, yes, I'm still alive

I'm not even sorry I haven't posted! Not much going on, went kayaking, bought my own paddle, went kayaking again, we're going kayaking down the Colorado River tomorrow with 6 other friends, should be fun.

Movies:

Cloverfield - liked it, interesting premise and good camera work
The Kingdom - awesome movie, well balanced, good script, love Jennifer Garner
I am Legend - Will Smith can do anything. very well acted, but the ending was ok

Ok, that's it. Really, pretty boring.