Beginner Friendly Paddling Trip

Five of us went and paddled on Cayuga Lake today:

Peter, Steph, Lena, Victoria (Tori not Vicky, please), and me (Angela or Anja not Angie)

GPS track and pictures here: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/388171

We met at Japes at 10am and spent about 30-40 minutes trying various configurations of tying boats onto the rack of Anja's new car. Eventually we figured out a way that looked secure. Then we went to East Shore and unloaded and practiced wet exits on dry land, and then Lena and Tori demonstrated wet exits on wet water. Steph demonstrated a T-rescue and practiced her roll. Next we reviewed some basic kayak strokes, and then set off south toward Stewart Park.

We had to pause while Cornell and Fordham launched sailboats, then continued down along the shore, chasing ducks, seagulls, and cormorants. We saw a great blue heron, too. We paddled around the point and into the inlet attached to Treman Park, pulling out near some picturesque picnic tables where we ate our lunches. Next time, if we go when the Farmer's Market is open, we could save space in our boats and just bring money and eat there!

The clouds rolled in and we were all starting to get a little chilly and launched just as a gentle rain began to fall. The water was high enough to sneak through a short cut between the break water and the shore, and we paddled back along Stewart Park. There was lots of flotsam left after the flood, including a couple of soccer balls, one of which still looked inflated so Anja slogged through some floating branches and retrieved it. The best boat for carrying a ball was Lena's XXX, so we stuck it in the natural depression in the front of her boat and she paddled the rest of the way back carefully, without dropping it once!

As we were pulling out, a guy on shore told us a storm was coming and then sat down and talked loudly on his cell phone in the pavilion while we lugged our boats on shore and loaded the cars. Just as we were leaving the sun came out again. Of course. LOL

We made it back to Japes around 2:00, sprayed down and put away the equipment and dispersed. The little soccer ball is now at Japes in case anyone wants to play a game with it during Bebe Lake paddling sessions.

I had fun - hope everyone else did, too!

anja

(Anja Baldo)