Thursday, October 18, 2012

WomenInKayaks group paddles Shiawassee

by on October 18, 2012 
Karol, Betty, Cathie, Jan and I paddled the Shiawassee yesterday and had great fun. About half way down (I think we were on the water for about 3 miles at that point) there was a huge tree, with tons of debris, blocking the river. We got all tangled up in the debris and spent quite a bit of time strategizing!
Jan managed to slip into her cockpit and slithered carefully under the tree. After such a great maneuver it wasn’t fair that she was met with tons of debris on the other side and had to get out and pull her boat through it all. The rest of us decided we had better figure out how to get to shore. We made our way through the maze of limbs and somehow managed to find a few spots to get out onto shore. Once on land we had to drag our boats through, up and over more debris and downed trees. We then lodged our boats between two other downed trees that were laying perpendicular into the river, scooted down the limbs and slid into our boats. WOW, it was quite a trick but off we went 30 minutes later. It was great team work and very challenging to know we had to get through… no choice.
The remainder of the paddle was uneventful and lovely. We rewarded ourselves with dinner at the French Laundry in Fenton. Actually, we just about closed the restaurant we had so much to talk about and share.
Karol’s message from this morning sums up the intensity of our outing… “I was so tired that I left my boat on the car, walked in the house, kissed my husband and went to bed!”



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