Anniversary Adventure

We left home this morning to sign up for an Outdoor Adventure with LL Bean: our first kayaking lesson. We arrived at the store to register plenty early for the 10:00 AM "first of the day" class. Or so we thought. However, reality came upon us when we found only one slot open for that class: the rest of the slots were pretty well taken between 7:30 AM (when the kiosk opened) and 8:00 AM. With other factors considered we decided that the last of the day class starting at 3 PM would keep us out of mid-day sun/UV so we visited the outlet store and headed home until time for class.

We left with plenty of time to park in the hinterlands, walk to the store, visit the WC and still be a few minutes early. We all clambered onto one of two dedicated buses which crept through thick traffic in downtown Freeport and was LATE arriving at the kayak site. We arrived, put our valuables in a bin that was locked in a room and then the building was locked with a padlock. We donned PFDs (personal flotation devices) - mine was a men's xsmall-small that was decreed "the right one" as they did not have any men's mediums, which is what I bought for the purpose. I was cinched in until I couldn't take a deep breath - the other instructor "released" me a bit when I commented that if vigourous activity was required I was in deep trouble!

We pulled on water shoes (I used my own) and were handed paddles. We listened to safety instructions and then followed single file down a path through a cow field (the organic beef cows were absent when we passed through the electric fence gates today) until we reached a 'paddle instruction area' just before heading down a gangway to the dock. After a few minutes demonstration and dry-land practice we filed onto the dock and were one by one dispatched in our tupperware boats onto the Harraseeket River which was nearing ebb tide.

I befriended a family from White Plains, NY, who were also in our class - the Mom, Dad and little sister (tandom kayak with her Dad) were great and the 13 year old son held his own and was near the front of the pack most of the time. I was toward the back but managed to nearly get hit by the 13 year old at least 3 - 4 times as he lacked finesse in controlling his boat. I tried to talk with him about proper technique and use of torso muscles to paddle - Jean said the instructors gave him the same talk while paddling. He used his shoulders and said at the end they were "tired" - I bet! I felt as though I had done nothing at all! No pain or fatigue in the arms or shoulders at all. But I was one of the slowest as I worked diligently on trying to get the technique right as slower speeds so that I would avoid straining my arms and shoulders.

My boat's seat was doubtless either not well adjusted for me or the boat is simply not the right one for me - it leaned me W-A-Y back and I did feel a small amount of back strain from trying to lean forward to paddle. Otherwise it went very well. Jean is ready to take a 1/2 day kayak trip with them out to Casco Bay islands. And they gave us a $12 coupon to use to help defray the $49 charge if used this summer/fall.