Kayaking Anyone?

I got ready, last week, to go on a kayaking trip. But at the last minute, I find out that I won't have a kayak to use. So, while everyone else was in kayaks, I used a boogie board.

I was decked out in my wetsuit, borrowed gloves, borrowed fins, sans helmet and a life-preserver. My sister-in-law worried about what I didn't have and if I was going to be warm enough. But, I went for it anyway. The South Fork of the American River was cold and running at about 2150. I was first into the water, went through the first set of rapids, and waited for the kayakers in my group to catch up. My feet, minus booties, were pretty cold within the first few minutes, but everything else was all good. As I had the camera, I took pictures of the kayakers as they came through the rapids and at various spots along the way.

Everything was going pretty smoothly, yet the fins seemed a little tight. About 1/3 of the way down, another guy in a kayak caught up to us. He was annoying right away. He approached me and said, (in a hick accent) "You should really have a helmet on." I said, "Your right I should, but it is a little late for that now isn't it?" He apparently didn't like my response, as he bolted right away. He stayed with the wives (brother's and brother's best friend's) the rest of the way down. He annoyed and amused them to the resting beach.

Upon reaching the beach, this guy aired his dirty laundry. Again, hear the accent, "I'll tell you, don't get drunk in Reno. I woke up with a hangover and a wife. Now I was 22 and she was 54. I had to move to the reservation, cause she was Indian. My mom didn't like her, so I stopped talking to her. She died in May....." I wanted to get up and kill this kid. Yammer, yammer, yammer, blah, blah, blah.

I tried to tune him out by taking off the flippers to loosen them up. After removing the flippers, I found that I had rubbed all of the skin off from my left second toe, left third toe, and right second toe. With the freezing water, the wounds didn't bleed though. We still had a ways to go, so I loosened the flippers up and put them back on.

To my utter joy, the kid was too scared to continue on. "Those next rapids are too big for me. I don't want to die. I only been doin' this a month", our chatty kid said. "Man, you crazy goin' down that on a board, wit no helmet!" I just laughed and zoomed away.

The rapids were not that bad at all. But, my brother's best friend and his wife stopped shortly after that (she kind of panicked regarding the rest of the trip). Unfortunately, my Chacos were with him. But, I was having so much fun that I spaced that fact.

We continued on down the river. The "big, gnarly" section wasn't that bad. And it was time to get out. All in all two and a half hours down the river. Man, was it fun. After getting out, I realized that my shoes were in the boat that got out upstream. So, I had to walk barefoot up to the truck, for the ride back. The once small wounds were know a bit bigger. My feet stayed frozen and blood free for the first half of the trek. But once I hit the hot pavement, my feet were pretty bloody.

We gave some people a ride back to their vehicles and thus replinished our karma for upcoming trips.

Despite the injuries and sore muscles, it was a fun trip.