I had originally planned to paddle at Stevenson Municipal Park. On the map it looked like a rather large bay and I thought I could safely paddle alone along the shore there. As I drove into the park, I noticed a police officer following me into the park. I got to the marina, parked and looked with disappointment at the weed infested bay. It was completely covered with weeds and not very inviting for a paddle. As I was standing there, the police officer pulled up and asked about my kayaks. It turns out he is a kayaker also and told me of a nearby creek that he paddles with his wife and son, and if I wanted to he'd drive me to it. We got to Crow Creek and he told me that I'd be safe there. He said it was somewhat shallow and I'd most likely pass fishermen and other paddlers. (I did pass a family several times on the creek.)
I unloaded the 10 foot kayak by myself, feeling very independent and adventurous. I went to the left and paddled under a road bridge where several tractors passed over. The next bridge was a train trestle and sure enough, a train passed overhead. That was a first for me. I was rewarded with a wave from the engineer. The train went on and on and on!! I turned around, passed by the put in spot and paddled up the creek. It was a shallow creek, but I never dragged bottom. There were shady spots - thank goodness. It was really, really hot this day! I went up into some of the branches off of the creek, but they turned out to be too shallow to paddle or covered with branches. At one point, I needed to turn around and after stepping into the muddy bottom, I didn't think I'd get my shoe out of the mud!
Anyways, it was a short paddle. But, I felt very accomplished to have done it on my own. I loaded everything back into the truck and headed towards Amanda's apartment.
No comments :
Post a Comment