Today may have been the best day ever. Well, some of it at least.
Soundtrack of the Day:
In desperate need of some good girl time with my best friend, we made plans to get breakfast...where we made plans to go kayaking...where we made plans to get lunch...where we planned our next adventure on the Colorado in a couple of weeks. I had to put my new roof rack on the Escape and then the new kayak attachments that I'd ordered before I could load up our brand new hardbodies and hit the river. Without instructions or a clear plan of what the hell I was doing, I got to work.
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| I am woman, hear me roar! |
About an hour and a half later, I was all strapped in and ready to go!
We met at the entrance to the launching area, and found the gate closed and padlocked. Not ones to shy away from adventure, we decided just to sneak down there anyway. It was a bit of a trek with the kayaks in tow, but it was well worth it :) The best part was that nobody was around, so it was super peaceful! It was starting to look like a big storm was headed our way, but we totally lucked out and it was beautiful!
Having brand new kayaks, I wasn't sure what to expect from them, but they were fantastic! Smooth, easy to keep upright, fast, comfortable...just perfect! I couldn't be more pleased!
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| Look at his little face! |
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| ...And his little wings :) |
Then this happened:
On the last set of rapids, Nora got her kayak stuck sideways on some rocks, tilting it towards the flow of water, and it ended up completely full of water. Completely.
She had to get out of it, and I ended up having to pull over, hike back to her and spend the better part of 20 minutes trying to lift it and tilt it so it could drain it enough to get it down to where the water was a bit calmer. I was scared to just let it go and have to rescue it 4 miles downstream with Nora stranded on the bank. Every time I managed to get it to move, it would just get stuck again in a different spot. I was up to my thighs with terrible footing in my Chaco's, trying to wedge a 10 1/2 foot kayak full of water out from a cluster of rocks, and I finally just moved one of the rocks to get it to move. You can call me She-Hulk from now on :) We got it down to a calmer area and managed to drag it to the bank where we drained it out. Good times. I was pretty beat by the end of it. Luckily, nobody got hurt, the kayak was just fine, and we even managed to keep all of our gear and paddles in tact! Just a few yards down was our pull-out spot, where Nora's husband met us.
From there, we loaded up and headed out to a very well-deserved lunch at Red Rooster. Nora and I hung out for a couple of hours there talking and then did some shopping.
Overall, we just had the best time and it was just what I needed to start feeling like myself again. I can't wait to get as much use out of our new kayaks as possible this summer!