Kayaking - West Fork River - Fish Heads From Above!

West Fork River 6/22/13                       Miles Traveled 12.6, Total 102.3
West Fork River to Red River to Cumberland, 7:30-12:30, Sunny, 75 to 85 degrees
w/ Friends of the Blueway and Blueway Access Adventures
w/ Scotty, Julie, Dottie about 24 total

We had to start early as Blueway Adventures was shuttling and Scotty needed to be at McGregor Park. He rode a school bus up and we put in at Billy Dunlop Park.  While he was gone, I discovered that one of the paddles was almost cracked at the end.  I put it together with the other half and duct taped it together, it seemed strong as it wasn't all the way cracked.  It was a beautiful day and we were rewarded immediately with a shot of sunshine coming down through the trees.  Very soon, I also saw cows standing in the river.  As more kayaks came through, all of the cows headed up to the bank.  I hadn't intended to take the lead, but the other kayaks were putting in very slowly.  So a group of 7 of us traveled most of the way down together down the river.   We also saw a deer standing extremely quiet on the shore.  Scotty and Dottie had seen it long before I had!  I also saw a river otter pop it's head out of the water to see what was coming through.  Later, a few of us saw a river otter scampering on the bank.   At one point in our trip, several items dropped from the trees just in front of our kayaks.  This took us totally by surprise.  When we looked up, we saw lots of herons' nests.  Then as we traveled on, something else dropped out of the trees just between Dottie's boat and another woman's boat.  We think that as the heron's flew out of their nests, they dropped fish heads.  We never were really sure what dropped, but it certainly was a surprise!  This was an interesting paddle.  We felt like we were going so very, very slow and the other kayakers never did catch up to us.  We're thinking that they were on a float and we were on a paddle.  A funny thing happened at the end when Dottie and I walked into the restaurant from the back on Cumberland Drive.  We looked and looked and looked on the Wendy's menu for Frosties!  We finally realized that we were NOT in Wendys, and settled for Burger King vanilla ice cream cones.  Scotty and I had earlier decided that after every 100 miles, we'd reward ourselves with a milkshake.  These weren't milkshakes, but they certainly were a delicious end to a great day.

Leaf Chronicle Article - Tour de Clarksville

I hereby give this rock the name 'sandwich rock'.

Breaktime where little West Fork comes into the West Fork River.  There are not any places to really stop along this river.

Can you find the heron?

"Look Ma, no hands!"

Isn't she cute?

This is the bridge at Billy Dunlop Park.

This picture alone shows why I love to kayak!  Thanks God for a lovely view!!