Wednesday, June 25, 2008

KAYAK - ACK!

Andre has been talking A LOT lately about kayaking. So we looked at kayaks at Gander Mountain and I think we can justify the expense because we really need another recreational activity (besides the sheep and dogs etc.) and this seems to be a nice way to get outside and enjoy nature. I would never have thought about kayaking, but it does sound like fun. The first year we were married, we went on a canoe trip on the Allagash River in the North Maine Woods in Maine. (Andre’s dad worked for many years in the logging camps. His grandmother was a teacher in a one room school in Allagash Village) http://www.state.me.us/doc/parks/history/allagash/history.shtml
Four days in the middle of nowhere, canoeing each day till my arms ached, escaping to a quickly erected tent to get away from the black flies and mosquitoes, doing “Portage” (carrying EVERYTHING 1 mile downriver to avoid the falls), losing the canoe!! as we were setting up camp one evening (it drifted away off the shore because we were removing items and thus weight. Luckily it came ashore a few hundred feet downriver in a turn!) - it was the best vacation ever. We heard moose at night, foraging the grasses in the river right below our tent on the bank. I sat at camp one morning and saw a mother moose and her baby crossing the river. Just a wonderful trip that we did a few more times and that I’d like to do again one day.
We don’t have areas around VA that are that remote, but we have found some recreational areas that we could kayak that should be nice. We’re probably going to try it out first by renting kayaks – and silly me offered up our anniversary day to do this (July 2nd - 14 years of bliss ) I’m taking the day off, hoping that it will be a nice day and we’re going to Rocky Gap State Park in western MD, http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/rockygap.html
to give this a try. I’ll take pictures and upload them here. I just don’t ever want to have to do the Eskimo roll, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I’m a nature girl at heart – I get that from my mother who loved to tend to her garden and flowers. She and her sisters all shared a love of nature and I cherish the fond memories I have of our family gatherings at Blackwater Falls and Canaan Valley, WV and the nature walks where they would know more about the fauna and flora than the park rangers! I’m excited that some of my cousins made plans to go back to Canaan Valley next month and so I’ll also be going for 3 days. I’ll see my brothers (I hope they are all going) whom I don’t see often enough and some cousins whom I haven’t seen in years.
I’m definitely feeling the need to REFRESH lately – I think the kayaking and the trip to WV should do the trick.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy Annniversary Debbie and Andre! Kayaking sounds like a lot of fun--something I would love to do if I could get away more often. The New River is supposed to be an amazing place for that sort of thing.

And I'm jealous you're going to Canaan. I haven't been there since college, and it was one of the most beutiful places I've ever been, especially Dolly Sods and the cranberry bog we walked on while there. Wow, that brings back some memories!

Debbie P said...

We're doing easy, quiet lake kayaking. NO white water for me.

Our family used to go to Canaan or Blackwater Falls every year and stay in the cabins. I went to Dolly Sods one time but don't remember it too well. I guess I should make that a day trip.