August 13th, 2010 Newsletter
Such a good time at the Whiskeytown Kayak Tour on Friday Oct. 13th!
We were met at Brandy Creek at 5:30 by Ranger Nancy and her fantastic volunteer “Buddies” who got each of us into a life vest and escorted us down the short beach to the waiting kayaks. Those wonderful buddies did whatever it took to get us in the kayaks. Each of us had a tandem kayak with a buddy in back who had the controls so we could paddle or not. We silently took off across the pristine calm lake with end of the day skies while birds soared above us looking for one last meal for the day.
We paddled into several different coves, each offering it’s own treasure. We went into one that had a shoreline covered with blackberries so that we could just paddle right up to them and pick from our kayak. It was so awesome to have all of us just spread out around the shore poked into the blackberry bushes! Another cove offered a perfect swimming spot where several folks jumped in and cooled off. Aaaaaah. One couldn’t help but notice what a relaxing moment in time we were sharing. The biggest challenge came when Pat’s buddy lost his sunglasses in the water and amazingly found them!
In eagle cove we actually had a Bald Eagle do a low flyover that certainly was just for us. Ranger Nancy passed on lots of tidbits of information about the lake, it’s wildlife, trees and hiking trails. It really is a wonderful gem we have right here at our back door.
The 1.5 hrs was so slow and peaceful yet went by so fast. Many thanks to Sally Renlund for organizing this event and to Ranger Nancy and her volunteers who are dedicated to helping increase accessibility for visitors with special needs and under served members of the community. They see potential and possibilities rather than perceived limitations or barriers to participation in the kayak program provided by the National Park Service.
This will be an annual event for HOPE4MS so if you missed it this year, we will do it again.