So, it doesn’t often snow this much in Skamokawa, but today I’ve had several inches of snow on the ground for days already, and more is predicted to arrive this afternoon. It is already about seven or eight inches deep in the pasture.
Alice and I went out to do some sledding, which usually gets done with garbage can lids at my house. When it rarely snows, you don’t own a proper sled. So we were scrutinizing the garbage cans again, when I suddenly remembered the whitewater kayaks! Perfect sledding substitute!
It took a couple of passes down the driveway to get the snow nicely packed down, but then it worked very well. Too well, almost! On one pass Alice ended up under a rhododendron bush covered in snow, and on another pass she ended up in the ditch by the road, having just missed a small alder sapling.
Already being a kayaker, I knew a little better how to steer by leaning and bracing, but having no paddle, I used my bare hands for bracing, which worked alright until my last run, when I hand braced into the blackberry bushes on the side of the driveway… and then ended up flipping over at the bottom while leaning a little too hard trying to avoid the ditch.
All in good fun…and I’m still picking blackberry thorns out of my hands.
This is nothing new here at our home in Michigan.
When the river in front of our place is frozen over, the grandkids and I pull one or two creek boats (9½’) out of the garage and go ‘ka-bogganing’.
We have tons of fun and laugh alot, plus we use a paddle which helps a bit to keep us away from the trees and the chain link fence in their play yard.
If we fall out at least we don’t have to worry about cold water seeping into our clothes. Well, we do, sort of. But it’s not liquid enough to flow through all our clothes.
Have fun.
Michigan Nana
We still have an intertube which we use but you guys look like you are having so much fun, I’m going to try the kayaks if it gets really snowy again.
A few years ago, I saw some whitewater kayakers at Mt. Sunapee ski area in NH. They were riding the chairlift and taking their boats with them.
I talked to them and the main two points were, just how screamingly fun it was and it was not a matter of “if” they got hurt, it was “how bad”. Observers also suffered injuries from falling down laughing.
I watched them and it was hillarious.
Wear a helmet and stay out of the sticker bushes.
Juan
Harvard, MA