Kayak - Inuit Word for Sore Shoulders

It says something about our little group when we can say on our leisure time we burn 900 calories.

Lisa suggested we rent kayaks and tour the Occoquan. Now, since Lisa is from Michigan and owns a kayak she is a bit heartier and originally suggested this when it was about 50 degrees outside. This is one of those cases where a good idea is simply waiting for its season. 80 degrees and sunny is the proper season.

Finding the marina was simple and a nice, tree-lined drive. I arrived first and found parking easily enough. My father was a redhead. I mention this only because even though my complexion does not betray this I need to slather on sunscreen if I plan to be outside longer than it takes to get the newspaper. Yes, I’m the one who still reads newspaper. I was glad I got there early so as not to subject the crew to my pasty and flabby visage as I prepped for a day on the river.

It was a beautiful day. 80 degrees with a nice breeze and dry air. Everything that the DC Summer is not. He kayak rental…cabinet? Yes, the rental cabinet was everything one would expect from a county park authority. To be fair I worked for Fairfax County Park Authority when I was a teenager (Lake Accotink) so I know the facilities are cobbled together from what’s found lying around. It’s a green system since nothing’s wasted, really. Gross, but green.

We selected our three kayaks and immediately did a shell game some no one got the kayak they chose. They're all the same so it doesn’t matter. The tricky part was assembling a paddle from the parts provided. We managed to get it together and by the time Jon and I were at the water Lisa was already underway. The parkies were firm but not pushy about wearing out Mae West life vests and Lisa insisted she didn’t need such enhancement. Honestly no, she stated state law that said the floatation device needed to be on board but there is no requirement that it be worn. Since the parkie had it in his hand and she was in the water it’s safe to say at that moment Lisa was in violation of the law. The parkies were not pushy at all but John and I suited up. In the end it didn’t get in the way.

So with a push we were in the water. The next question was right or left. We start in the middle, pretty much, and Lisa said she usually goes right so we tried left. I have kayaked a few times but it’s always been a sea kayak and sea kayaks have rudders and rudder pedals. Steering is a bit easier. So when I say I paddled circles around my friends I’m not bragging. It’s hard to keep those things straight!

I managed well enough in the general direction we chose. We passed a few fishermen and at one point a fish jumped in front of my boat. I didn’t scream and I’m a bit proud of that.

We eventually made it to some rocks which made it clear to me we had be traveling upstream. So, if we were to shoot the rapids we’d be going against the current. There may be some bragging rights but no, w turned around. As we went past the marina and the river widened we wondered how far it was to the ocean. Anyone who has seen Gilligan’s Island wonders this. As it turns out it’s not close. The Occoquan feeds the Potomac which empties into the Chesapeake and then we’d hit the ocean. SO for us, beyond the big marina, beyond route 95 lay route 1 which is where we decided the Potomac must start. So out goal became to get that far and say we kayaked the entire navigable length of the Occoquan. We learned later the entire length is about two miles so it was four mile round trip. Since I was zig-zagging the entire time I probably did eight.

The further out we got the wider the river became and the larger the boats got. It’s a no wake zone some none of them are going very fast but it doesn’t take much to jostle a kayak. The only are I found difficult was under 95. The pilings are huge compared to me in a kayak (so many places for trolls to hide) and the ripples coming sideways was a bit disconcerting. We all survived and went on to the route 1 bridge.

We got as far as we felt we needed to claim bragging rights and turned around. It wasn’t immediately evident but we all knew we were paddling up current. The trip back required that we paddle without stopping. That wasn’t an issue since I had every intention of getting past the 95 bridge as fast as possible.

By the time we were in sight of the marina we were ready to stop. It’s not hard work but it’s constant. My technique is such that I shovel water onto my shorts with the paddle. The weather was perfect for drying shorts so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

We paused for our selfie but because of the glare and polarized sunglasses we couldn’t see it. We paddled in to the marina past a dock with a kid fishing and singing something about what he calls his bologna. Nice kid.

Disembarking wasn’t too tough and they ended up charging us each ten dollars for an hour even though it was closer to two hours. No complaints there.

We toddled off to Madigans for well-deserved shrimp and alcohol. The wait for siting outside was ridiculous but John got us seated inside. We smelled like we had been on the river all day so they may have regretted not seating us outside. The shrimp flowed and the wine did what wine does and we all got sleepy.

So ended our day on the river. We had our workout and got some sun. It wasn’t a lazy river by any means but a grand day out.