Kayaking in Topock Gorge

So! About 20 years after I first decided I wanted to go Kayaking in Topock Gorge, I did it! My friend Amy went with me. We drove up to Lake Havasu City the night before. WACKO (Really) the outfitters, took us all in vans to Golden Sands where they gave us a quick lesson and set us on our way. They had two trailer loads of boats. There were about 12 people in our group.

This is Amy and I at the beginning of our day.

Here they are with the boats unloaded and getting ready to put us in.

Amy is a triathlon athlete. So she was very comfortable in her Kayak. At the beginning, she was rowing frontwards, backwards and against the current just to see how hard it was. I was just working on figuring out how to go forwards without hitting anyone or anything! I did get the knack of it after not too long though. And somehow, Amy and I were out at the front of the back the entire day. Amy said I was a "ringer", that at least at one point of the day, she had a hard time keeping up with me.

We had perfect weather, the scenery was gorgeous. It was mostly nice and quiet. We didn't run into too many motor boats until closer to the end of our day.

It was kind of funny, I swear that I had read on the website that this was an 8 mile trip. After we were on our way, I found out it was a 14 mile trip! It was a little disconcerting, but I did fine. I did wish I had brought my biking gloves though. I got a few blisters from paddling. It was quite a workout. My shoulders are a little sore, and my abs are quite sore. I'm not sure I even knew I had abs before!

Here is some of the view in the gorge. Most of you probably know that the Colorado River is the border between California and Arizona. As we went occasionally we had to find a place to make a pit stop. As I was headed to the Arizona shore, Amy said, I am going to go pee in California. It cracked me up. I told her I thought it sounded like a political statement.

Here is Amy doing some of her backwards rowing. She had to work all her muscles you know! I tried it too, but just for a minute or two.



Amy really liked her boat. And for some reason she stayed pretty dry. I don't know if it was because she had a different type of kayak or just superior rowing skills. I was pretty much wet from the waist down all day. Every time I lifted one side of the paddle out of the water, water would drip down onto my legs and into the boat. I was sitting in water most of the day. It was still a lot of fun though. Here is Amy enjoying sunbathing in her boat at our lunch stop.

Here is a view along the river at our lunch stop.

We had lunch at Picture Rock. See all the petroglyphs?

Amy got a photo of me in my kayak.

We did see a wild burro. I got a blurry photo of it. The guide with us said that often they swim back and forth across the river.

Here we are waiting to be picked up. The indomitable Amy, sitting in her boat again! Carrying the boats from the river to the pick up site was the hardest part of the whole day!

I used to always think I wanted a canoe, but now that I have gone kayaking, I think I would like one of those instead! Now If I only had someplace to keep it and someway to haul it....