What a great day to go down the river!
I am now the proud owner of a Perception Sport Swiftwater 10.5 kayak. The Tsunami 145 is just too heavy for me, I can't even lift it off the ground by myself. It weighs 59 lbs. My husband bought a used kayak thinking it would work for him, but the cockpit just is too tight and not comfortable and is too tippy for his liking. So we went kayak shopping. There are some great end of season sales going on right now. We decided he would use the Tsunami which is sized just right for him and very stable, and the Perception for me. It only weighs 44 lbs. I can not only pick it up, but I can carry it to the van and it completely fits in the van. Now I am not dependent on his brute strength if I want to have a kayak day.
We decided it would be fun to kayak down the Nooksack river from the Meridian bridge to Ferndale.
It was a beautiful summer day. The river on that stretch is very wide and slow with only a few areas that we needed to think about our route. Mostly because of logs in the water and shallow areas. There were a lot of fishermen on the shore and in boats, since the salmon are running. I found out that they think of kayakers as a hindrance in the way of them getting to their fishing hole. I had the mistaken belief that kayaks would be viewed as vessels to be cautious around, but no....they didn't slow down when they went by. They caused some pretty good waves with their wake. I got pretty good at just turning perpendicular to the river when I saw a boat coming, so I could take the waves head on and not tip over. I was a little nervous this morning when we left as I have never kayaked in a river before. I was so thankful that for my first time it was such a good experience.
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| the view from my kayak |
Kayaking has been a good change of pace for me, besides how fun it is, it is a great workout for my arms.
*Calf update: It's seems to be fine just walking with no negative effects. I had been trying to add some running and hiking into my walking and bicycle workouts, but I seem to keep tweaking my calf, so I finally went to the Dr. He said I did tear my calf muscle in June and that it is healing slowly but that I should have physical therapy to see if they can't get me running/hiking again. So Wednesday I go in for my first visit to see what they can do. Mental note to self - should've gone to the Dr. in June. Crossing my fingers...........
