She got a new kayak. Then she got a broken foot. Finally the bone was healed enough that she felt ready to load her boat on the car and join us for a short paddle.
Paddling the Yahara River from Lake Mendota, Tenney Park to Lake Monona, Yahara Park Place is sort of like “let’s take a walk” or “let’s go for a little bike ride.” It’s very local to us. To paddle and down-n-back takes about 45 minutes.
On this occasion we were figuring out how to help Katia try out her kayak while her foot is still in a boot. She got a good deal on a used kayak (paddle not included) from Skokie Lagoons, and this her first chance to try it out. She was actually pulling price tags off of her paddle as we were launching! It all worked out great, so we are looking forward to having another local paddling partner. She is one of the few people in our Quarantine pod so we are more relaxed on precautions.
On this day – it was a Friday – there was more traffic on the Yahara than we have seen on any river in a long time. It was jovial, and we were all “part of the scenery.” This included a guy washing his dog, a couple of twenty-somethings floating and sipping beverages and a bunch of kids way up in the trees in colorful hammocks. One gentleman remarked on how great our Bell Spitfire canoe is – he used to work at Rutabaga Paddle – those guys love our boat! Although it was such a nice time, we are reminded that we should think twice about Fridays in this heavily-used area.
The pictures
