Kayaking!

Today we started off with a short reading of an excerpt from “The Ponds” in Henry David Thereau’s Walden. We took note of the kinds of observations he made, the meanings or connections he made from those observations, and his reflection on it. After that we went over to Eastwood Metro park for Kayaking and hiking. We were split into two groups, one would kayak while the other hiked. My group kayaked first. Since me and another student were taller than the rest in our group we got to use larger kayaks. The one I used was only slightly differently colored from the water near the land where plenty of trees and grass were. It was sort of a very dark green but slightly watered down. The rest of the water in the middle was more of a muddy brown colored. When I got in the water with the kayak it felt pretty stable. I didn’t feel like it would be easy to flip over unless I tried to or turned a little too hard. I felt like I had control over the movements of the kayak, like I feel in control when I am riding a large tricycle. At one point I did turn a little too hard, but I caught myself before much water at all got in and didn’t get to taste the water and whatever else might have been in it. Most of the water that did get into the kayak was from moving the paddles across my body and other paddles. Even though it was only a little water that got in I was still quite cold from it, but it wasn’t unbearable. The water was too muddy to see how deep the lake was. Some of the only indications of how deep the water might be were the branches and logs that were in the water sitting on the mud and large enough to peep up out of the water. There were also a lot of geese around so we had to avoid them a bit. Occasionally they would make noises, but otherwise it was just the sound of a couple bird songs, paddles splashing in the water, and conversation between people as we went along. The smell wasn’t as pleasant, though. A lot of geese had come through before we got there and they really had to go to the bathroom. Not the worst thing I ever smelled, but it wasn’t the best by a long shot. 

Us sitting in our kayaks in the lake