Putting it to the Adventure

I made all this cool new gear, but most of it remained untested. Sure, I’ve taken the paddles out for a couple trips at Bear Lake, but I’ve never gone out on an adventure with my paddle or even known how to carry my canoe with the new thwart.

So, first I learned how to pick up the canoe. It took a lot of practice, since the boat is too heavy for me to lift comfortably, but after several attempts I was confident that I could get it up and down without hurting myself and I can even get it on the car on my own now.

The next step was to scout locations, so I went out to Deer Creek as it’s the closest lake to my house without a currently active harmful algal bloom. I was mostly intending to drive to each of the park entrances around the lake to see which places might be nice to launch from, but I had brought my canoe just in case I found a good spot. When I got to the furthest spot I saw that the water had receded very far back from the shore, exposing a large span of the small river that feeds the reservoir.

This was my moment. I hauled the boat the hundred yards from the car to the stream and dropped her in.

I instantly fell in. I’m not used to getting into a boat while there’s current, so it tipped me straight away, but I recovered quickly and went down the stream.

My little stream joined a larger one, and I started going faster than I’ve ever gone in a canoe before. The stream was still very shallow, and I had to stay to the deep part of the turns lest I bottom out on the rocks. I was paddling just to steer around the rock and mud patches, and I was flying. It was magnificent.

It was also a double edged sword. I got to a shallow section and realized that there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to paddle against the current to get back to the parking lot.

The reservoir looked to be about a quarter mile further down stream, but the car was a quarter mile behind me, and I knew then that I was going to have to portage the boat all the way back.

So, for fifteen minutes of the purest paddling I’ve ever experienced, I hauled the boat back over the marshy, muddy soil for the better part of an hour. There were knee high thorny weeds in massive patches, and I had to cross the thick, sticky mud of two different creeks that were feeding the stream.

It was worth it.

I got back to the car tired and sweaty, shoulders more sore than they’ve ever been before, but I was happy. I’d adventured, I’d pushed the limits of what I had thought I could do, and I had had fun.

Plus, I now knew for a fact that the yoke I spent a week making works very well.

That little gravel ramp is the boat launch attached to the parking lot. That’s where I was heading.

It’s hard to see, but that little bend in the stream to the right of the image is where I got out of the water. The boat is in the same place for both of these pictures.