We took the camper, the kayaks, and the dog to James River State Park over the weekend of September 8-9. We left J home because the main purpose of the trip was to do the 6.5 miles of river between Bent Creek Landing and Canoe Landing, and, well, J has gotten wussy about kayaking.
We arrived late morning on Saturday and found a great camper spot--it was actually right across the road from the bathhouse, but you couldn't see the bathhouse from the camper at all. We set up, leveled, got everything running and perfect, and headed out to the river.
The plan was to take the kayaks and paddle around in the water at Canoe Landing with Ollie. We wanted to see if he would like the river even though he didn't like the ocean. (He didn't.) We also wanted to see if he would sit in the kayak while we paddled.
So we got the yaks in the water and pulled mine right up to the edge of the boat landing. With much cajoling, pushing, and a bit of picking-up-and-putting-him-in, we got Ollie into the kayak. You could tell that he was not particularly excited about this new experience, but being the good dog that he is, he didn't complain.
He also didn't fit very well, but then what do you expect from a 65 pound Irish wolfhound mix?
We paddled around and eventually he got the idea of how to sit so that I wasn't completely off balance. We went upriver a bit and paddled back down. I was loving having him with me, and once he drank some of the water out of the bottom of the yak he was happier laying further down.
Since things were going well, we decided to do the 2.2 mile paddle from Canoe Landing up to Dixon Boat Landing. Dave got out and went up to the livery to get them to shuttle him back from Dixon. While he was dropping off the truck, the skies opened up and I got downpoured on...while paddling around with the dog still in the kayak. He was not at all happy at that point and wanted out in a bad way. But by the time Dave got back, most of the rain had moved off and we decided to go for it.
Ollie was a trooper, the weather held, and we had a lovely little paddle without further excitement. Afterwards, we went back to the camper and Dave broke in the new grill for steaks.
Delicious!
On Sunday we got up early and met the livery guy for a shuttle to Bent Creek. The trip up to the landing in the van was scarier than the trip itself--I think the guy wanted to become a NASCAR driver.
The trip itself was breathtaking. The scenery is amazing on that stretch of the river. I didn't imagine that there were rocks like that in the James. Unfortunately, I still don't have a waterproof camera so I have no pictures from that part of the weekend. We will definitely go back and take some another time.
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