Paddled a beautiful section of the Kalamazoo river tonight. We originally put in at D avenue -- there's a very kind gentleman who makes his land accessible to the public, with hand-lettered signs saying "Welcome canoes, kayaks and boats" and "Parking $1.00 per car / put-ins $1.00 per boat / Please be honest" We had a nice chat with him before getting our boats in the water.
The original plan was to paddle upstream until our arms gave out, then have a nice leisurely float back downstream.
Well, it turned out that between the rain-heavy river current, the wind blowing in our faces, and my still-primitive kayaking skills, the river kicked my butt in ten minutes flat. I was paddling as fast and as hard as I could, and was just barely holding still, the swift current turning my boat closer and closer to shore. I was pretty afraid that the current was going to sweep me away before i could do anything about it.
So we put back in, threw both kayaks on top of R's car, and drove upstream aways to another park. We put back in and floated back down to the original put-in. Ironically, the river narrowed drastically just before where we put in, and was the fastest part of the whole trip! If I'd just been strong enough to paddle that first 100 yards, I could've easily made it as far upstream as I felt like going. Still, it was a good idea to play it safe, because I'd never done that part of the river and R had only done it once.
The trip downstream was a lovely one. We saw some pretty impressive wildlife, on top of all the usual ducks and geese: a small herd of whitetail, at least a dozen great blue herons, something that was probably a river otter, and at the very, very end, a mature bald eagle. What a treat! This kayaking stuff is awesome.