Rollin' on a river

I tried kayaking for the first time this weekend. The sport of kayaking has always appealed to me. Or let me rephrase that…The thought of kayaking appealed to me, but I wasn't sure that I would ever really try it. It's that little drowning phobia of mine that always got in the way. For some reason, being in a river or murky lake creeps me out. Still, I wanted to try and I did and I loved it!

My friends SV, Movie Chick, and I paddled down the beautiful Chattahoochee River from the Buford Dam to Settle's Bridge. Immediately after launching, we hit small rapids along Bowman Island. I freaked out at first every time my kayak rocked. But as I gained my balance, learned how to control my movements, and how to dodge shoals and fallen tree limbs, I relaxed and enjoyed myself.
This stretch of the Chattahoochee was a nice mix of relaxing, smooth waters and stretches of fun rapids. The picture on the left is of Movie Chick and me hitting our first smooth run.








Movie Chick is doing a fabulous job. She became a master of the art of freeing oneself from dangerous rocks.








SV became our expert geese chaser. Unfortunately, the flock rejected him and flew away as soon as he reached them.







And me...Well, let's just say that I was (overly) proud of myself for not hyperventilating when I heard the rushing rapids ahead of me. Also, I didn't see any snakes, so that was good. This water rarely reaches above 50 degrees even during our smoldering summers, so I feel that keeps the snakes to a minimum.

Now I know how flat the water looks in these pictures. But I promise there really were some rapids along the way! I wish I had some shots of that to share, but whenever we hit rapids I was a little preoccupied with not tipping over. The largest one on the section we kayaked is known as "The Hump". Since I don't have a shot of "The Hump" of my own, I found this one online:

See! I told you there are rapids!









Besides, would we really be this wet afterwards if the water was glass smooth? Oh, and did I happen to mention the water temperature? Brrrrrrr!






But all the fun was rapidly (insert audience laughter here) over and it was time to load up the kayaks and go.
This was our take-out place by Settle's Bridge.




It was so much fun that we are all going again this weekend. And this time I will remember to bring a change of clothes.