Kayaking Again

Today I took a major step in my grief journey.  As most of you know, either from reading my blog or knowing Scott personally, Scott was passionate about kayaking and always wanted to share his passion for kayaking with his family.  The last time I was in a kayak was a little over five years ago when we took our last kayak trip as a family.  Six years ago we bought Jaelyn her first kayak - a youth kayak.  It was six years ago today that she tried it out, kayaking independently for the first time - at six years old.  The last time she used that kayak was our last kayak trip as a family.    

So today, a couple of firsts happened.  Today was the first time I was back in a kayak since before Scott’s death, five years ago.  Today was the first time that Jaelyn tried out her first adult kayak, exactly six years from the time she tried out her very first kayak.   We chose to kayak the Swatara Creek, which was also the same creek we took our last kayak trip on as a family.  I did choose a different section of the Swatara, a section that I had never kayaked before. 




We put in at Jonestown at 8:00 this morning (we were hoping to get the trip in before the bad storms forecasted for this afternoon).  Scott was very present in my thoughts and perspectives on this trip.  He would have been so proud of Jaelyn!   The trip was estimated to take about two hours, but actually took us about an hour and a half. I was reluctant to take a longer trip due to pending weather as well as being our first trip in over five years.  Jaelyn definitely got her dad’s love for the water - whether swimming, kayaking, floating, etc. 

 I was hoping to see wildlife on this trip, especially an Eagle. We saw lots of birds, a pair of Canadian Geese, a pair of Mallard ducks, about five or six Blue Herons, and a Common Merganser.  Then about two hundred yards before our take-out point, I spied a bald eagle sitting on the rocks by the water.  It flew up into the tree above where it had been sitting.  The eagle stayed there until we paddled closer, then it flew off across the creek.  Seeing the eagle was the highlight of the trip.

It truly was a wonderful way to spend some time on my 43rd birthday - spending time with Jaelyn, doing something she loves to do and something her dad loved to do, and just spending time in nature.  We didn’t see another person throughout the trip, just the occasional sound of cars in the distance or over the bridges we went under.  We were surrounded by water, sun, birds singing, and a wonderful breeze.  Definitely good for the soul!


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