Conestoga River Paddle

Ein and I embarked on our longest paddle yet: five miles on the Conestoga River!   My sister helped me drop my car off and then drove me upriver so that I could paddle back down to my car.  Of course, geocaching was behind this master plan!   There were a series of 15 paddle-only geocaches hidden along the river, accessible only by kayak, and Ein and I found 9 of them.   I set out later in the day than I had originally planned, otherwise I might have made a more intensive search of the 6 that I missed.   No worries, I would happily paddle this beautiful section again!

We had rain and thundershowers the day before, so this shallow river was very muddy in color.  The weather forecast had been calling for storms on the day of the paddle, but everything cleared off for a safe and beautiful day.   Very grateful!

Ein waits for me while I am out of the kayak to sign a geocache log - the container was too high for me to reach from my kayak.   A lot of the containers were such that you did not even need to get out of the kayak to search.   They were bison tubes tied to roots or tree branches hanging over the river - love.   This one was tied in a tree, but too high for the current water level and my short arms!

I had my first experience with: 

Rapids - just keep paddling.   It was intimidated to hear the heavy rushing water up ahead.   One of the sets of rapids I hit had a foot down drop off and I was extremely intimidated!   There was no going back though.   Somebody that I work with is an experienced paddler and I remembered her saying to paddle straight through rapids.   I remembered her words just as I was hitting the no-turning-back point!   And I am glad that she told me this because my instinct was to stop paddling, wait until I got through the rapids, then resume paddling.   Continuing to paddle kept my boat going straight through with minimal turmoil.   Cool!

Portage!   Portage is a term that I just learn and it means: when there is a big dam coming downriver, you need to get your boat out and carry it around the dam.   I got to experience my first portage!   I did not know where to go though.   There were private farm properties on either side of the river near the dam, and I did not remember seeing any public access or roadways upriver.   I took the kayak out of the water, took Ein's life vest off so he could enjoy some down time and we went under an electric stock fence wire and ran downriver a short distance and put back in!   

After the dam we could count it as roughly our halfway point, and there was also a decent current for most of the rest of our paddle.   I initially thought calm no-current waters were preferable and safer for me than a current, but when you are paddling a few miles...a little help is nice!  

One more set of rapids and Ein and I found our final geocache.  This cache was one that I had to get out of the kayak for, but thankfully it was hidden off of a nice gravelly beach along the river (instead of mud.)  I did a lot of rinsing off of the kayak, removing the bark pieces and weeds and leaves and water that had accumulated all over it.   Ein and I rinsed our mud streaked bodies off.   We weren't clean, but we were rinsed.   I look forwards to more river paddling in the future - this kayaking thing sure is a whole lot of fun!

Ein Kayak Adventures!

Ein and I have enjoyed two outings on the kayak since I bought it!

Our first trip was to Green Lane Park.   The lake is pretty large and I was excited to have our "maiden voyage" there.   I soon discovered Regulations.   The largest part of the lake is closed to all watercraft except what can be rented at the park.   In short: no using their lake unless you pay them money to do so.   The park does have a much smaller lake, "Deep Creek Lake" available for personal boats.   Ein and I made our way there!

I pulled into the put in ramp but noticed "no parking" signs everywhere.  Just as soon as I arrive some guy pulled in with an enormous truck trailering about 10 canoes and several kayaks.   This guy was no amateur!   He backed up to the dock and started unloading his boats at lightning speed.   He was kind enough to explain to me where the parking area was, that I could drop my kayak, go park and return.   I put in on the wrong side of the dock.   The very muddy, wrong side of the dock.  

Our kayak was quickly anointed with a large amount of muddy water but we were off!   Ein was between my legs with front feet perched above the seat area.   Until he moved a little bit!   That made the kayak wobble a little, which made Ein panic, which made the entire kayak become very very wobbly and capsize-y!   I grabbed Ein and held him still and our world stopped moving.   I tucked Ein down below the lip of the seat area so that he could just sit there and not have to balance so much.  I paddled to the other side of the tiny lake and we departed.   Whew, two minutes in the water and we needed to regroup!   Between the mud and mess and kayak-wobbling, I was starting to feel that I had made a terrible overambitious mistake with the whole situation - we didn't enjoy this at all!  Landing across the lake ended up being a bad idea because now Ein was muddy, I was even muddier since I had chosen a quicksand-esque deep muddy area to land at.   It took me 10 minutes to get coordinated enough to launch back out with minimal mud spray!   Following that I arranged Ein in his sit position and we paddled around the tiny lake for a bit longer before going ashore.  We saw a painter turtle pop its head up.   Our first kayak adventure complete!

After we were finished of course I discovered the very not-muddy clear water gravel entry side of the dock.   The more you know!  Since I had to load the kayak back into my car, I had a stack of towels as well as a tarp to swaddle it in.   I wiped all of the mud off and practiced the fine art of arranging the kayak just-so inside of my little Honda.

Our second adventure was just last week at French Creek State Park.  We went to Hopewell Lake and there were lots of other kayakers there.   Our PA Fish and Game Comission license stickers allowed us to use the state park lake.   No mud this time, I pulled up close and unloaded the kayak.   Ein and I were off onto the lake with no hesitation this time around.   The lake was so blue and much bigger than the Deep Creek lake.   There were lots of people out enjoying the beautiful evening, both on the lake and on the sides.

We paddled out all the way as far as we could go.  While the lake is still water, it still felt like we were going against a current.   Ein was as calm as could be.   When we turned around to return to shore the evening sun was harsh in our eyes.   I understood what was happening but it scared Ein a little and he fidgeted.   I stopped paddling and let us float and comforted him and he soon calmed down.   We found lily pads to paddle through, and I love the sound of them hitting the bottom of the boat.   And at one point I did not want to return to shore, I just wanted to sit on the lake with my best boy and enjoy the moment.   There were birds skimming the lake surface for bugs.   We saw some fish flop up to the surface and then disappear quickly.   Ein was panting from the hot sun laying on him, so I cupped lake water in my hand and he lapped it up.  I repeated this about 10 or 12 times until he was no longer thirsty.   We went and explored an off shore island (I would love to hide a paddle-only geocache.) but there were "No Trespassing" signs posted on the island.  The current seemed to be in our favor for the return, and paddling was simple on the way back.

So we are getting to be old pros out there on the water!  When time permits I would like to give river paddling a try.   There are some sections on the local river that don't have too strong of currents that I would be able to paddle upstream and then float downstream again.   I love this fun new way to enjoy nature with Ein.  I am absolutely treasuring our time on the water, and another chapter in my life with this incredible little dog.  We have done so much together.

Kayak Corgi

We got a new toy!   I have always wanted a kayak (most specifically because I want to be able to do paddle-only geocaches.) so when I discovered this kayak that was small enough to fit in my little Honda Fit and very affordable on a sale....I couldn't resist!   She is a Pelican Vortex DLX80 and she is all mine!

I plan to primarily take Ein with me on my paddle adventures - it will be a nice way for us to get out together in nature.   Just like we always did.   But with a lot less physical demand than my preference for five plus mile hikes puts on his hips.  

I need to get a life vest (Ein already has one.), a paddle and a permit for the kayak, but as soon as that is all squared away we will be setting "sail" on our first paddling adventure.   I love summer!