Tyler Yegerlehner
English 101 .027
Essay # 3 Revised
1,184

A New Love for Kayaking

I have recently discovered that I’m and outdoors junkie. My friend, Brian Babcock, and I absolutely love to go kayaking. Right about the time I came to this stunning realization I lost my job. So that made it much harder to constantly go kayaking. I have a nine foot perception kayak. It’s a pretty crappy one. Actually, out of the entire kayak selection, it’s possible that it is ‘the’ crappy kayak. It floats and carries a bit of extra weight, and surprisingly it’s quite durable so I still love it. The three main places we kayaked at were the Old Dam, Hovey Lake, and the Ohio River.

Now there is surprisingly a lot of preparation for a day of kayaking anywhere. At the Old Dam, the only place that has some whitewater locally, you might want to wear a helmet. In some part of the rapids there are some pretty tricky parts and if you don’t know your way around then you could possibly hit your head on a rock. Brian and I never wore a helmet. We are what you call idiots. Depending on how long you’re going to be there you need to stock up the four main ingredients of an exceptional cooler. One, you need bottled water, not much though. Two, you’ll need a few easily made food items and snacks. Bars of any kind are a must. Three, the main ingredient, is as much beer as you can fit. You must realize that this is an all day event and that this part is crucial to the experience. Finally, you need ice to keep it all cold. Now that you have your cooler completely stocked you need to make sure you have your life jacket, water shoes, swimming trunks, towel, kayak, and video camera.

I live in Mt. Vernon so there is not much whitewater action around, but at the OldDam in New Harmony there are rapids that Brian and I practically lived at over the summer. There are three main degrees of whitewater at the Old Dam. There are a few weak drop offs that when we first started going there were hard core. Next there are a few rapids that you kayak up to in calm parts then turn into. They much stronger and could flip you over if you’re not careful. If you do get flipped over then your buddy has to help you and your kayak to the other side of the Wabash River to get all the water out of your kayak. This is quite difficult considering that the bank is about a foot of mud that you sink all the way into. Now the third type of rapid for us there is when you actually carry the kayak to the furthest point you can reach and paddle hard upstream so you’re not taken into the rapids backwards. When you get far enough upstream you turn the kayak around and position yourself where you need to be and then paddle as fast as you can downstream towards the rapid of your choice. Main thing to remember during this step is to avoid all rocks. The Old Dam is our number one choice for when we go kayaking, but near the end, before we put up our kayaks for the winter, we were going to the Ohio River.

Recently, we’ve been going out on the Ohio River just for conditioning, but also because of the convenience of it only being a minutes’ drive from our houses. On our second trip we noticed a clearing in a spot near the port. So we paddled over to the clearing and saw a small creek further back. So we went there, but there hadn’t been enough rain to go too far back. So we planned to go again as soon as it rained. After it rained, we had gotten past the fallen tree in our way and explored the creek as far as a mile or a mile and a half back before we noticed that we barely had enough light to make it back to the ramp before it got dark. So we grudgingly turned around, but vowed to come back in the spring when there would be enough rain to get as far back as we could go. I’m truly counting the days until we can return to the small creek and explore the place that I believe not many in Mt. Vernon know about. I was surprised at how many places near my home I could kayak at. There was also Hovey Lake near to us.

Now Hovey out of our three main destinations to choose from is usually our last choice. But sometimes when you’re looking for just a quiet, peaceful day that’s where you go. When you first drive by the dilapidated shack that is the main office for the lake, you may be a little disappointed at first. That evaporates as soon as you surpass the crest of the hill blocking your view of the lake. When the day is bright and you listen to all the birds that live in trees in the middle of the lake, and you see the wind ripple the water’s surface you’re truly glad you made the trip there. At Hovey there’s no reason for any hard strokes because it is supposed to be a quiet, long, easygoing trip, unless you’re racing your friend back to the dock at the end of the day. Now as you can imagine it takes awhile to get anywhere on kayaks so there are still many unexplored places that one day I hope to find at Hovey. Some of the places we have found though are quite creepy. It always reminds me of Lake Placid the movie in this one spot. And on one of our ventures to this spot I was completely freaked out. The thought was just beginning to sink in again that I was going to be eaten by a giant crocodile when a small fish jumped right over the tip of my kayak spraying me with water, but that not how I got really wet. I freaked out so much that I rolled my kayak and it filled up with water. I almost lost my shirt and I had to swim it to the bank the whole time thinking that that was exactly what the crocodile wanted. I made it back crocodile free that day though. I never told Brian why I was so scared by a little fish; I just kept telling him I was really startled is all. So I’ve already made a lot of great memories from my one summer kayaking.

I love every aspect of kayaking. The solitude, the endurance, and the joy of exploring on our own are the great things I get from it. And I love all the bodies of water I get to experience those aspects in. I’ve made great memories so far, but I can’t wait till next spring to make some more at the Old Dam, Ohio River, and Hovey Lake.