Kayaking - Duck River - Paddling for a Margarita

Duck River                                                   7.5 Miles, 340.1 Miles Total
Dement Bridge to Highway 41
11:00 to 2:15
Hot, sunny day, but nice on the river, Blue Skies :)
Me, Scotty, Dick, 32 total boats through Paddle Adventures Unlimited

It was a GREAT day for paddling.  We went with Paddle Adventures Unlimited.  It seemed like a really long time until we got into the water.  We arrived there at 9:30, had to wait for another paddler, then a group had to go to the take-out.  So once we got into the water, it was really a welcome paddle as it was such a hot day.  Once again as with so many other meetups, we met lots of nice people.  We paddled for about 2 hours and found a small gravel bar where we stopped for lunch.  There was a large watergun battle here, and in the hot weather, nobody minded getting wet!  The last half of the day seemed to go especially fast.  Scotty switched into a canoe with another lady, and her husband tried out his kayak.
After the paddle, we went to Alfonzo's in Shelbyville and had a fantastic Mexican dinner.  I had a margarita which was a perfect way to end the day (even if it was an especially strong Margarita)!

Kayaking - Cumberland River - Triathalon Support

Cumberland River Triathalon - Magic City Triathalon    2 Miles, 332.6 Total
7:00 to 9:00
Weather -Overcast/Foggy, Light Sprinkles, Not too hot

About 300 athletes participated, and this makes our 3rd triathalon.  For the short course, swimmers did 400 meters around the cove, and in the long course, swimmers did 1500 meters around the cove and then out across the Cumberland.  Swimmers entered the Cumberland and were to swim across and then back around the buoy.  The problem was that when they swam across, they got caught in the current and couldn't make the turn to go 'upstream'.  I ended up paddling near one athlete for a VERY long time.  He just could NOT make any progress to go upstream towards the buoy.  He would swim a few feet, stop and rest, and then end up back right where he started.  It was very frustrating for me, but he kept insisting that he would do it on his own.  I think I was in the same spot for 20 minutes.  Scotty came along and between the two of us, we convinced him that he could hang onto the kayak.  Slowly, but surely, he finally made it to the buoy and then back across the river into the cove.  I'm pretty sure that he was embarassed that he couldn't make it, but I had such admiration for him.  I couldn't even imagine attempting a triathalon.  Scotty looked up his time later and he did not come in last, although he was the last and very late swimmer to get out of the Cumberland.

Kayaking - Hamilton Creek Marina - Moonlight Paddle without our IDs

Hamilton Creek Marina                                 4 miles, Total  330.6
July 31 with Paddle Adventures Unlimited
Beatrix and 6 other paddlers
Put in at Hamilton Creek Marina, out to Shipwreck Cove Restaurant, 2 miles out, 2 miles back

PAU has a moonlight paddle every Thursday evening.  It's a bit of a drive to get down there and I only did it once before with Ethan.  Beatrix texted and said she was going, and knowing that my summer was almost over, I immediately said "yes, I'll go".

Lake paddling is different than river paddling.  There is not a current in a lake and you have to constantly paddle.  But 4 miles wasn't long, and it was a paddle where I wished it was longer.  It was a beautiful evening.  It was a group of friendly people.  And once we got out to Shipwreck Cove Restaurant, we had dinner.  Darn - had we known, we would have brought our IDs and had a drink.  Not only do the people eat well at this restaurant, but so do the fish.  Oh well, maybe next time.  Although I'm not too sure I'd want to paddle after having a cocktail. The catfish swimming under the restaurant dock were huge!    The best thing about this paddle is coming back at dusk.  We all put lights on our kayaks and it's just beautiful.  The lake is quiet, the moon is out, the world just seems more beautiful and at times like these, I wish I lived on a lake!

Such a different outlook!

Kayaking - Harpeth River/Narrows - Amanda's SendOff

Harpeth River Narrows                                                              5.9 miles,  Total 326.6
with Rachel, Amanda, Brittaney and Dick
5.9 Max Speed, 2.7 Moving Avg. Speed, 2.0 Avg Speed



The girls and Richie got back from their Chicago trip and Amanda and Brittaney agreed to go paddling with me.  Happy Day for me, and even happier when Richie said he wanted to go too.  We borrowed kayaks from Dick, and Dick joined our group.
It was a great day, mostly because I knew days with my kids were becoming less and less.  We had a nice relaxing day.  About halfway through, we stopped and had lunch on a bank.  We paddled up the side stream to the waterfall.  Here I could tell that the water in the Harpeth was extremely low.  We had to land our boats and walk back to the waterfalls.  Brittaney climbed part way up the rock face of the wall, but not the whole way once she realized she'd have to climb back down.  After our paddle, the kids and I stopped at a Mexican restaurant in White Bluff.  The food was inexpensive and very good.  We all left there feeling extremely stuffed!

Brittaney's first time kayaking and she's a pro stopping to look at the cows!

Kayakking buddies.

Easy enough to climb up, but then how will she get down?

Kayaking - Harpeth River/Narrows - Cows in the River

Harpeth River Narrows                                5.7 Miles,   Total 320.7

The triathalon wasn't a paddle for us, and we thought we would make use of the beautiful day and paddle the Harpeth.  It was Laura's last day in Tennessee and she seemed up for one more Tennessee paddle. When we drove in, we weren't sure we'd be staying.  Every parking lot was jammed full with cars.  We didn't see a lot of people actually paddling the river so off we went.  We actually passed very few people, maybe because we didn't put in until about 2:00?  It was fun seeing the river through a 'visitors' eyes.  She says the rivers in North Carolina are more brown, and not as green surrounds the river.  The highlight for her was seeing cows in the river which she says she has never seen in NC.  We also went up to the tunnel waterfall.  The water is low and we had to dock our boats and walk back to see the falls.

Kayaking - Cumberland River - Nashville Triathalon Support

Nashville Triathalon, Water Support               Miles maybe 3,  Total 315
Scotty & Me

The challenge of this trip was actually getting our boats into the water.  We followed the directions sent out by PAU, but policemen were blocking the roads and not letting us get close to the river.  We tried both sides, and called the PAU coordinator but she couldn't really help us either.  We went back to the downtown side of the river up away from the triathalon.  We talked to a policeman and he let us go past the barricade.  We had to take our boats down the concrete steps and lift them over a fence - not an easy task!  We were with Laura, who had paddled previously with Scotty on another meetup paddle.  She is a contractor that worked at Fort Campbell this summer and brought along her kayak.  She told us about her group "Hope Floats" from North Carolina.  It's a group supporting cancer through kayak trips.  Wow, did it sound fantastic.  They go on week long paddles and once was down in the keys.  The actual support this year did not seem as hard as last year.  In fact, this year, not a single swimmer grabbed onto my kayak.  Scotty, Dick and Laura also had either none or very few people hold onto their kayaks for support.  After the race, we paddled up past 3 of the downtown bridges.  It was tough paddling both directions due to little river current and it was a windy day.  We decided not to paddle up any further, but instead loaded up our kayaks and headed over to the Harpeth River.

Kayaking - Red River - Girls Day Out

Red River                                  Miles Traveled 7, Total To Date 312
11:30-3:50
Bonnie, Mandy & Me
Put in at Red River Canoe, Take out Port Royal State Park
70's-80's, overcast in morning, sunnier in afternoon
Very little current!!!, Shallow water

This was Bonnie's first time kayaking in a long time.  She did great.   It wasn't the most pleasant of days since the water was moving so slowly and it was shallow.  We all got stuck on gravel several times.  Mandy flipped once when she pulled up to a sandbar and the bar was steeper than it appeared.  We saw one snake in the water - Mandy thought it was a copperhead.  It was brown with diamonds.  I've hardly ever seen snakes, but this is now 3 on this river!  We passed a few other people out kayaking.  We stopped probably more than halfway down and had our lunch.  All in all, it was another great day of paddling!