These are some photos from last Saturday, on the Androscoggin River... I haven't put them on my kayaking blog because we are trying to keep some spots for the book only... (which I am having a hard time reconciling, to be honest...) but... I can figure that out at a later time...
It was COLD!! I always walk into the water to get into my kayak... I am not balanced enough or felxible enough to sit down into my kayak while it is barely in the water without getting my feet wet.. on this trip... I got in my kayak, Sandra was in her kayak, and as I was drying off my feet realized I had forgotten my paddle... so despite hearing my father's voice in my head saying, put on your shoes... I ran up to my truck, barefoot, to get my paddle... when I got back in my kayak and was drying off my feet again... I had blood dripping from my left foot, on the outer ball of my foot... I ignored it and put on my smartwool socks (of which I need to get a couple more pair!) we paddled... and at the end of the paddle my sock was pretty covered with blood... I dried off at my truck, had some paper towels in there, which was good, and then after loading up, found some first aid supplies at a local store and bandaged myself up... it is a pretty deep cut, was about 1/4 of an inch deep and about 3/4 of an inch wide... jagged of course, not a clean cut.. . it has been healing better than I anticipated, but because it cut through the callused part of my foot... it is in an awkward spot... as it heals it is sticking out a bit... and today, started bleeding again... as some of the thicker skin got caught on something... so.. back to bandaging it for a bit... anyway.. could have been much worse... and yes dad... in this situation you would have said flip flops were a good thing... if and only when barefoot was the alternative... once again, proving father knows best!
We paddled out into this protected area.. it was VERY shallow...
We got stuck here a couple of times... and eventually found a passable route...
Out into the Androscoggin...
We were looking for another river that comes in to the Androscoggin... we found it, but couldn't paddle very far because of the rocks etc... but it sure was pretty!
This stump... looks pretty non descript... we saw it on the way up and a beaver came charging at us... I had never seen a charging angry beaver... it was crazy... no time to get my camera out... on the way back, I had my camera ready and we watched and waited and no beaver came out... so I put my camera away and then TWO angry beavers came charging out! Sandra was close enough to them that she panicked a little and paddled pretty fast to get away... I chuckled... it was so funny... they looked so cute and scary all at the same time... I wish I had gotten it on video...
They quickly submerged and then we saw them swimming away from us... when they were on land, they were so fluffy looking... not so much in the water...
I am debating about whether or not it is time to put my other kayak away for the season or not... it is something I love so much... helps me de-stress in a way nothing else does...
I am so grateful mom introduced me to this sport and for the many hours we paddled together. I think of her so much when I am kayaking and know she would LOVE exploring all of these places with me...
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