What to do?

What does a person do when they would love to be out on the water for a long kayak trip and they are in between trips? This is what I have been doing.

Planning a long trip, of course. I think that I may have come up with a good one for next weekend. 125 miles to Marietta again, this time starting at Mohawk Dam. I will be camping at the locks and some stealth camping on islands to change things up. This time I will also be using a canoe instead of a kayak. I still paddle it like a kayak but I have started to enjoy this beast. It is much lighter than my big kayak that I took on the Ohio River and is a bit faster, and can carry about 100 pounds more gear.

I have also picked up a bit of litter, at Riverside Park in Mount Vernon and in the Kokosing from Riverside Park to Memorial Park. I have a really difficult time walking past litter. If I see it, I must pick it up. I think it is part of my mental illness, but if it does good, then it is a good thing.

Good news, I got a hammock, and next I am going to try to learn to sleep in it. It is much lighter than a tent, we will see how it goes. I will take it over to Ariel-Foundation Park and try it out between a couple trees for a afternoon nap sometime.

I have been doing frequent sunset paddles at Ariel-Foundation Park lately. I like to go over after supper and get 3-5 miles of paddling in. It is calm and peaceful and helps me keep in shape for my long voyages.

Last Saturday we went to the Muskingum River Advocacy Council Boat Festival at the Zanesville Boat Club. Joey and his family and Sonya, Rose and I paddled from Riverside park in Zanesville, through the locks and to the Boat Club. Was a nice paddle and going through the locks is always fun. We took a side trip up Moxahala Creek for about a mile and found some beautiful rock formations and a ledge that formed a small water fall about a foot high. Any time we take Rose someplace she always starts picking up litter.

I have not totally ruled out attempting to finish my Ohio River trip this year. I have a trip down the Little Miami to do the first week in August. We will be paddling to the Ohio River Paddlefest in Cincinnati. After that the next weekend we are on the Au Sable in Michigan for a weekend trip. After that I am free and clear to possibly finish that trip.

A project that I have decided to take on is to improve the river access points in Knox County. To make them more accommodating to everyone, not just people who can throw a 100 pound boat over their shoulder and carry it half a mile. I think there needs to be some kind of stairs or ramps to the river from most of them. We also need to have more secure garbage containers like the one in Greer to keep the animals out of the cans. I also am designing a onion bag box that can be made out of metal, something we could have the Career Center welding students put together for us at a reasonable price and put them on metal poles so that they are flood resistant. This project will take some labor and some money. Grants will be applied for to fun some of it. We are not sure exactly what we need right now so not sure what the cost is going to be. If you have any suggestions please IM me or email me with them.

I was told this week, “you love the Kokosing River!” I agree. I do. I love everything about it. The twists, the turns, the riffles, the rapids, the trees , the birds, the deer, the goats (yes I have seen a herd of goats.) I love it all. I love to see it clean and as nature meant it to be. I don’t like to see it polluted and littered. I love that a kid, or a big kid sometimes, can swim in it and not come down with some deadly illness. I love that there a huge fish and small fish, and big turtles and small turtles. Some fish become a Eagle’s dinner, and some swim free for some angler to try his skill on. I like it that you can eat a fish out of this river and not be a pound heavier from the lead and mercury that might be in them. I love it that you can paddle down this river and not be pushing cans and bottles out of the way to get through the water. I love it that once in awhile a tree falls across the river and you have negotiate that obstacle and test your skills. I love the sandstone cliffs with water dripping into the river. I love the river best when there is frost on the dead grass and leaves on the bank and a mist drifting off the cold clear water. I love to sleep next to a riffle and hear the water each time I wake at night, reminding me I am still alive and next to one of the most beautiful waters in the world.