Forgot to mention in my last post that we moved on up to Provo, UT. Found a reasonably priced (not cheap) park named Lakeside RV Park down near the lake and state park. Their small pool seems to be their biggest draw and of course being near the lake and river. The park has a nice river walk behind it and a wonderful and very long bike trail behind it just across the river with easy access nearby. Lots of mosquitos but bearable. Full hookups and a monthly rate.
We busted my inflatable 10 ft. 2 seat kayak out of storage here for some fun and took it over to Utah Lake down the street. Amazingly, my battery powered air pump still worked even though it has been stored for over a year. Hopped in and we headed out to explore the unknown. The lake is really high right now and the state park is partially flooded so we thought that would be interesting to explore. Here’s a pic of me and the kayak on a lake in Tennessee.
Getting started was not easy since I have never kayaked with 2 people in my boat before and we have never kayaked together. It took some seat adjustments and getting used to. You have to find the sweet spot for the placement of the movable center seat for both single and double which is different for each. Once we found that and happily discovered there is room for both sets of legs as well, we had to figure out our roles (front paddles while rear steers) and remember to use shallow strokes. It took us awhile and a whole lot of going around in circles but we got it figured out. Then we hit our stride and had no problem going where we wanted to go.
We went out around the breakwater onto the lake and headed for the river which runs from there, behind our campground, and on down. Getting to the street bridge, I thought sure we were stopped by the high water but as we neared it, we ducked way down and slid right under it to the surprise of a canoeist on the other side. We paddled on down the river until we were directly behind the campground. We had to do a lot of steering around tree limbs sticking up and through hanging leaves. We thought about getting out there but then the mosquitos and bugs showed up and we decided we weren’t done yet anyway so we turned around and went back up river to the lake. OK, so we really just wanted to slide under the bridge again. It was fun! Before hitting the lake, we noticed the flooded picnic area to the right and thought why not paddle on through or portage if we had to thus saving some time and distance. As we headed in, the rocks underneath told us in no uncertain terms we were going to be portaging. LOL We climbed out and pulled the kayak through ankle to knee deep water. We checked out the sandbagged bathroom that was now surrounded by water and cutoff from the mainland. It got flooded pretty bad. Seeing the tables nearby, we decided a water picnic was necessary before finishing. With water up to our ankles, we sat down to feast on squashed pop tart pieces and bottles of fresh water. It was very nice and certainly my most unusual picnic. Once we had had our fill of food and sun, we towed the kayak over to the submerged boat ramp and launched again. Getting back to shore was almost too fast we thought. Sigh.
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