Kayaking and Hiking Adventures

  Labor Day Afternoon was gorgeous, and our last day before returning to school called for a late kayak trip. The Social Security Hole put in is a small park at the end of Halls Ferry Road in Independence, so a short drive for us. The river view is beautiful, but there is no boat ramp here. The water has been low, and is far below the stairs that are there. We used a small cut in the bank to take in and out. It was doable, even with our heavy pedal kayaks. There is a bathroom as well. We headed upriver since we didn't have a shuttle, hoping to get to the Riverfront park in Independence. The current was pretty strong, and it was slow going. Not many others on the river at this time or place. We just started pedaling to make some distance. It wasn't too bad against the current, although we did get a good workout. There were some other obstacles, though. In order to escape the main current, we tried to take a shortcut, and had some rocks to deal with. We did find a nice swimming ...

  We chose this park because our daughter, Melia, wanted to join us, but since she was on her way south, needed something close to I5. Bowman Park is close to I5, has plenty of parking, bathrooms, picnic area, and a nice boat ramp and dock. We got there before Melia, and when we put in, it was obvious that the current here is stronger that we were expecting, and Melia has a paddle board. We had not planned to shuttle, and our kayaks were already in the river. So, partially due to smoky conditions, Melia continued on her way south, and we headed upstream. The river here is pretty. Lots of foliage on both banks. Luckly, we had our pedal kayaks, so we just started powering upstream, very slowly, against the current. The water looked low, but there were few places that we had to avoid.  After a time of continuous pedaling, we stopped to rest and cool down. While we didn't exactly swim, we did get in far enough to dip all the way in. We enjoyed the view and a small duck that came ...