Kayaking stories

·	buying kayaks article

·	Table Rock Lake, Missouri

·	Nolin Lake, Kentucky

·	Honea Path, South Carolina

·	Pine Island, Gulf Coast of Florida

·	Playa Linda, Titusville, Florida

·	Key Largo, Florida

THIS PAGE:

·	Finley River, Missouri

w/ Hanna’s story about it.

·	Flat Creek, Missouri

·	Wappapelo Lake, Missouri & story

·	Yellowstone River, Montana

w/ Cody’s story about it.

·	Tie Hack Reservoir, WY

·	Horsecreek Dam, WY

Lake Wappapelo, in Southeast Missouri was a great place to stay. It is one of those few areas that we would consider moving to when we are ready to settle down. The small town, self-sufficient, not a suburb, was very appealing to us. But, since this is the kayaking page, I best stick to that subject and not go on a rabbit chase.

The lake is quite beautiful and has good fishing. Shae, Cody and Hanna went on an exploration kayaking trip around the lake. The air temperature was pretty cold, so no swimming. The next day we took the kayaks to the spillway for the reservoir. I was very pregnant with Tytus at the time, but decided I would take a quick spin anyway. Those of you who know me know that I can be very adventurous. I climbed in, with a lot of difficulty since my belly was huge! Josie decided she wanted to ride with me. She climbed in and we headed out. I didn’t get too far from the shore in case we tipped over. Fisherman dotted the shoreline, some catching fish, others not.

Seeing the spillway and enjoying the water from a kayak is a wonderful way to enjoy God’s creation. There is something special, peaceful sitting on top of the water; no waves, quiet, no rushing or appointments.

Josie got a little antsy and wiggly, so I decided I better get to shore before she tipped all three of us over, her, me, and sweet baby in my belly! I paddled to a little inlet where I thought we could disembark. Cody, my 17 year old was nearby so I hollered to him for some help. He grabbed little Josie and set her on shore. I, on the other hand, was not as easy. Sitting so low in the kayak coupled with the water being much lower than the rocky shore, made for a bad combination. I put my left leg out of the kayak and realized that there was no way my body was going to follow. The police officer, sitting in his car, near the shore, looked at me like I was crazy as I attempted to boost myself out of the kayak, with no success.

I had Cody grab my left forearm. He pulled as I pushed with my right.

Legs flailing, arms grasping, loud grunting, my dress flying up, are just a few of the actions of the moment! I noticed the police officer looked away politely as my legs flew up and my dress slipped past my knees. I think I would have rather had him come help me, though!

With absolutely no grace and complete embarrassment, I got out of the kayak and on to shore, vowing not to get back in the kayak until after the baby was born.

Kayaking the Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River is incredible. It meanders back and forth out of Yellowstone National Park and into the beautiful mountains of south west Montana. We camped at a very nice KOA just east of Bozeman, MT. The camp is out in the country on the bank of the river. The price was a little high but we wanted to camp on the river for a couple nights. The view out there is amazing. There are mountains behind the camp (one of which Dad and I mountain biked up) and the river in front. The Yellowstone is a very fast flowing river, thus it was no surprise that Hanna was a little nervous to kayak down part of it. We were going to float it just us two because Dad had to work and Mom had to watch the kids. It didn’t take much, though, to convince Hanna that this wasn’t a killer river and that we would have a blast. Mom called a rafting company and they said this section of the river would be fine for us to go down, no class V rapids or waterfalls. We put in at the Grey Owl fishing area just north of Emigrant and set off on our 10 mile adventure. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Well, at first the river was calm and peaceful. We just let the current carry us along for a little ways, rivers have a tendency to change pretty quickly though. We went through some small rapids and around some boulders, nothing too bad. In fact, Hanna told me later that she was hoping the river would get faster during that first part! As we came around a bend I heard something. It sounded like rapids, but these were different. They sounded big, bigger than I’d ever heard before. As we got closer we could see what we were up against. The river narrowed to about half its regular width, which of course made the river twice as fast. The rapids were at least 100 yards long with numerous boulders scattered beneath the surface creating some “killer” rapids! There were some guys ahead of us in inflatable pontoon boats that were getting tossed around pretty good. Hanna and I quickly decided to ride them out instead of taking the long walk around. The biggest wave of all was right at the beginning in the middle, straight in front of us. Hanna tried to get over toward the right side where the rapids weren’t as big. Unfortunately I was in her way.

“Cody move!” “I can’t!” “Cooooodddddyyyyyy, ahhhhhhhh, noooooooo!”

By the tone in her voice and the volume of her scream she must’ve thought this was the end. We both dropped sideways into the base of the first major rapid and went up and over it. This was the first point in our trip I thought we might actually tip over. You see we have sit-on-top kayaks without drain holes in the bottom. This causes the kayaks to fill up with water very quickly and not drain out. When this happens the kayaks gain about 25 pounds of weight in water, which makes them extremely hard to maneuver! Luckily they do have a sealed chamber in the bottom which also means they are extremely hard to sink! When we went over that first rapid the kayaks filled to the top with water. After that the rest of the rapids I was struggling to stay right side up. Capsizing right about then would not have been fun. The river was littered with boulders, the water was freezing, and the current was very swift! Plus, on the back of my kayak I had my 20L Seal Line™ water proof bag with some expensive things in it. I was afraid the bag might fall off the back of the kayak and get carried away in the current. After paddling hard I made it to shore on the other side of the rapids. Hanna was going a lot slower and fell behind. She too finally made it to shore by me. After dumping the water out of our kayaks and laughing about how fun that was we kept going.

After going a few more miles and going through some small rapids it was time for a bathroom break. We’d been drinking lots of water to stay hydrated. When it was my turn I hiked over toward a small cedar tree but stopped dead in my tracks when I saw something on the ground in front of me. Being so close to Yellowstone there are many grizzlies in the area. An adult grizzly can run at speeds of 35 mph and attack with unparalleled ferocity. Right in front of me on the ground was an enormous grizzly track! I could tell it was a grizzly track because of the shape of the pad and toes and the length of the claw marks. We had stopped at a place with thick brush along the banks, the favorite daytime hiding place for a bear. Needless to say, I didn’t “take a leak” (as Dad says) there!

After going through some more small rapids and getting stuck on top of a boulder… oh, you want to hear about how that happened? There are many large boulders sticking up out of the water that the river must flow around. When the water flows around a boulder it speeds up and creates an eddy on the other side. Hanna and I figured out we could paddle right up against the side of the boulder and get a little boost! Some of the boulders are just beneath the surface creating little waves that are fun to go over. One of the times I misjudged the depth of the boulder and got stuck on top of it. The kayak was kind of balancing and felt like it might tip over off the side. I leaned back and forth but could not get it to budge! Hanna, realizing my predicament, paddled up to the side of me and grabbed the handle so I wouldn’t tip. Then, while I tried to push myself with my paddle, Hanna pulled. Finally I was free!

We paddled on for a few more miles and came to a fork in the river. After a quick debate we decided to veer right on the fork that seemed to be going faster. The river was fast alright, but also very shallow. I was afraid we might get stuck and have to hike back to the fork. Grizzlies were still on the brain, and so I desperately hoped we wouldn’t have to do this. After going a short distance we came to another fork. The fork that went off to the right looked too shallow to kayak in so we kept going on the same route. I figured we must be getting close to camp because I could see the hill it was on just ahead. Finally we came to where the main fork and the one we were on met. Looking back behind us we sure were glad we went the way we did! The main fork was going so slow! We had definitely chosen a shortcut.

At long last we saw the bridge that crosses the river to the camp. We were back. The rapids that Hanna had been afraid to go on the day before in front of the camp looked small to her now. We paddled to shore and dumped the extra water out of our kayaks while being stared at by the people sitting on the bank. We brought our kayaks back up to our campsite and pulled the plugs out of the bottom so if any water leaked inside it could drain out. Kayaking the Yellowstone was a great adventure. I’ll never forget it, the rapids, the boulders, the bears, the maze, and the sunburn! We had a great time and I look forward to our next adventure!