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Paddling from Albany to Buena Vista Every once in a while, everything comes together. A coworker wanted to go paddling. I didn't have a canoe, but another coworker had a couple kayaks she'd lend us. Cool! Off we go.
We had intended to be on the water at dawn, but the road to the ferry at Buena Vista was unfamiliar and it took some time to get straight. I parked my car there and Alex picked me up. I parked in the "No Recreational Parking" area on the east side of the river. It would have been much better to use in the nice park and boat ramp on the west side. Once picked up, we drove to Bowman Park, in Albany. They have a nice boat ramp and launch point there.
Very pretty at Bowman park. We were still early, but it wasn't dawn.
Otters! Seriously, those are otters. Trust me. We ran into them a couple more times as we floated along.
Alex had never paddled before. With a little instruction, he did great.
Like a duck to water. The kid is a natural.
An eagle! It was looking to be a great day.
I hadn't been paddling in a long time, so even ducks were cool again.
Herons are ubiquitous, but still pretty neat.
This is a funky pump station. That barge-thingy in the lower left looks like it hasn't moved in a decade.
There's the sun!
Beautiful, still, morning. Even the balloonists were out.
I saw a slough off to the side and decided to investigate.
Turns out it was Wilkerson Creek, but we didn't know that.
Alex was skeptical of my plan. He wasn't sure we could paddle through weeds. We made it pretty far up the creek. Kinda neat.
It was a great day on the river.
Like I sad, the kid's a natural.
At Buena Vista, we waited for the ferry to start going across the river and quickly paddled in to the landing spot. Again: It would have been MUCH better to have used the park on the west side of the river. Alex had such a good time, he's interested in learning to build boats! We'll be starting a Skin-on-Frame canoe, soon. |
