Another tough put-in
Conditions were perfect when Sam and I unloaded our kayaks and got on the water at 11:20. We had to drag our kayaks through some shallow gravel to get to the main river. Sam was breaking in a new old kayak, and within 500 feet rolled off a rock – our first casualty.
We paddled a couple of miles without further mishap into beautiful scenery.
There were lots of rocks and downed trees. Sam fell out again and lost his paddle. He emptied his boat and used my spare paddle.
A little later I attempted a run under a downed tree, which grabbed my paddle and flipped me over. The tree kept my paddle, but when I went back to get it, the tree had offered it to the river gods as a sacrifice. Evidently the river gods liked it as much as I did because they wouldn’t give it back.
This was about 5 miles into our 12-mile trip. We split my spare paddle and went single blade the rest of the trip.
We saw belted kingfishers, great blue and tricolor herons, ravens, crows, blue jays, lots of turtles (including soft shells), and a water snake.
We arrived at Glenwood at 4:50 – more than 5 hours of on and in the water.
Up the creek with half a paddle
Conclusions – Lessons Learned:
This was a far more eventful trip than I had anticipated. It was good we had the spare paddle. It was nice to find out that half of a double blade paddle works pretty well. I relearned my lesson about trees (go around). Perhaps the biggest lesson learned was that there are no easy rivers. The Caddo claimed two paddles today from seasoned paddlers, and this is supposed to be an easy, family-friendly river.
The author, Kent Walters, where his paddle disappeared (photo by Sam Reyna)
Please see photo album Here