Went kayaking today...

Seems odd to be in a boat on a river in January, especially since I was just skiing two weeks ago in Wyoming. My general rule is that if it is cold enough for water to freeze then you should be involved with a sport ON TOP of said water, not IN it. And if the weather today had been unpleasant at all, I would have been the first to back out. But in one of the more unusual winter twists in the South, it was 70 degrees today. Windy, but the river (and I use the term loosely) was down in a little ravine, so most of the wind just blew over the top of us.

Now, this was no mighty river, because if it was, I wouldn't have been on it. I have really only been kayaking for about a year and a half, and I am still definitely a beginner. The biggest river I've done is the Nantahala in North Carolina, and that's only class II (with a class III rapid at the end). I've got a great Eskimo roll (in the pool--I've only got two combat rolls to my name), but I am a chicken and I do not like the thought of lingering pain and death so I am slow to move up in difficulty. Anyway, this was on the Loosahatchie River in Fayette County, TN. Not a bad drive from our neck of the woods (better than driving over into Arkansas in search of a creek to run, or to eastern Tennessee in search of real rivers). The locals have taken and piled rocks in the river underneath a bridge, forming a narrow, deep channel with little waves. My husband and one of our fellow paddlers spent their time playing in the waves and the little eddies on either side of the channel, doing stern squirts and rolling with abandon despite the chilly water (I said the air was 70, not the river). I paddled around below the channel, where the current had mostly dissipated, ferrying back and forth across the river and waiting until I felt comfortable enough to move up into the current and try some peel outs and ferrying in the faster water. I don't know why I was so reluctant; this was barely class I water and, like I said, I have done one class III before (although I did it outside my boat; I swam just above Nanty Falls and went though the indignity of having all those spectators on the boardwalk watch me float on by). To my credit, I haven't been in my boat in three months, and since the last time I've lost 20 lbs so my boat is now handling very differently than before. I'm just low on confidence right now, for some reason. I need to go to a few nice, easy rivers to work on my roll in the river; maybe that will help my confidence. We'll see.

Anyway, it did feel nice to get back in my boat. My goal as far as my weight is concerned is to be within the weight range for my boat (a LL Lil Joe) by May. I've only got 15 more pounds; hopefully if I get that by March (when I'll be free of my swim coaching obligation for the school year) I'll be able to go hit some local spots and get used to my boat again before summer.

The real downside to kayaking in the South is that you have few options. The only reliable rivers are those that are fed by dams or springs. Everything else is rain dependent. We haven't had much rain recently, so nothing this winter is up. All the other stuff is a long drive from home, so we have to have a long vacation to take such a trip. That doesn't happen much. We'd love to live somewhere with more kayaking options, but of course then we'd have to get used to colder weather paddling; that's the sort of stuff that runs year round in Colorado and places like that. Oh well.

Well, at least I've gotten some river in my system. Hopefully I can get in the water a little more soon. Someday you'll see me bombing down Double Trouble on the Ocoee. Not someday anytime soon, but someday...