Kayaking on a beautiful summer evening sounds like complete relaxation to most people, but the thought of my maiden voyage on Long Arm Dam brought more that a little fear to my mind. As a not-so-great swimmer, I had been avoiding paddling the trusty yellow Potomac on any body of water. Any time my husband asked, I was armed with an excuse. On Friday night, I had finally run out of excuses and was forced to face my fears head on. Driving to the dam, I sat quietly in the passenger seat, envisioning myself capsized, trapped beneath the kayak, sinking to the bottom of the lake, despite wearing a life jacket. Despite Eric's assurances that I would probably not flip and most definitely would not sink, I was still unconvinced. With trepidation, I climbed into the kayak, clutching the paddle. Eric gently nudged the craft onto the smooth water. Once I adjusted my balance and fell into a rhythm with my paddling, the fears fled and the peacefulness of the evening quieted my reeling mind. My grip on the paddle loosened, and my arms and legs relaxed. I paddled along, watching two herons take flight, maybe trying to chase us away from a nest with their loud squawking. We inched along the shoreline, spotting some birds and other wildlife. In the more shallow parts of the lake, we could see bass and other fish swimming just below the surface. An hour later, as the kayak scraped the rocky shore and I climbed out, I declared that kayaking was my new-found hobby, a stress-reliever and calorie torcher, all wrapped up in one. And if I was really lucky, It might even help to tone my flappy triceps, too.
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June 2018
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