The Big Meander

Erin

The water, any body of water, is my happy place.  One of the things I am most looking forward to on this trip—especially over the next 10 weeks is the amount of time we’ll be on or near the water.

Marla is less excited about the water, but to her credit, she is always willing to give it a try.

On Day 3, we rented a kayak to go out on the reservoir.  The recommendation from the woman at the boat rental shop was to get to the reservoir by 8 a.m. when the water is like glass.  We followed her advice, and once we got into the kayak and out of the main channel, we found a beautiful little inlet that was perfect for exploring.  Flaming Gorge was named by John Wesley Powell because of the towering red cliffs surrounding the area.  The water in that inlet was indeed like glass and reflected back the mirror image of those cliffs.  

As a person who regularly struggles with anxiety, the water has always been calming to me.  My breathing and heart rate slow and my mind stops racing to the next item on my list.  I am just there, in that moment. 

I love to be in the water—even swimming laps at the recreation center pool.  It’s the one place where it is truly silent, and I let it literally envelope my whole body as I slip through the current.  When I am on the water in a non-motorized boat of any kind, I love the zen-like space I ease into watching the paddle dip in and out of the water or the sail fill with wind.

When Marla and I were in our little inlet, our world slowed and shrunk a little bit to just that part of the canyon.  We could hear the different bird calls and see the fish swimming just below our boat.  It was exactly what I hoped it would be.

Marla

Most cats I know either don’t like water or go in grudgingly.  Of course there are the exceptions to the rule like Bengal Tigers (who doesn’t want to be a Tiger?!), and I have heard of some cats, I forget where, who swim and hunt fish….in Africa or India I think but don’t quote me on it.  Anywho…..the point is that I am a Leo and this particular cat is not overly fond of water/water sports in general.  Once I get comfortable and am IN the water or substantially drenched, water doesn’t bother me and I can even PLAY in the water once I reach that point.

Ironically last week, it was my idea to get out on the water……..I thought: “We’re at a HUGE reservoir, we should DO something lakie here”. Kayaking seemed like a cheap and easy thing to do.

8:30 in the morning we were at the Cedar Springs Marina renting a kayak from the eminently capable, but incredibly busy woman at the counter.  She turns to a young boy & says “can you set them up with a double kayak….they’re the green-ish ones.”  The kid, looking very unsure replies “yes”, and walks out the door……were we supposed to follow him, wait for him, give him our measurements for some reason…….???  As it turns out, yes, we were supposed to follow him to the little shack on the floating dock where he is having some trouble discerning which kayak was “green-ish”.  (In his defense ~ none of the double kayaks were green-ish….they were WHITE AND BLUE).  He takes a guess at which kayak is the one and gets out a couple of seats suitable for sitting around the campfire, slaps them into the kayak where they sit VERY close together and look to me like an invitation to capsize & send the seats to the bottom of the lake.  

I’m not freaking out yet.  I have found as I get older I’m more willing to speak up & take care of myself….not always kindly but you get what you get some days……probably not so elegantly or nicely I say “That doesn’t really look right……do you think you can find someone who knows what they’re doing to check to make sure this is right?”.  He mumbles something I can’t hear and trundles off to find that person, who presently comes back, takes the seats out, declares that in fact this one is not a double kayak and pulls it back onto the dock.  He proceeds to put another kayak in the water, put a couple of seat cushions on the seats, asks the other kid to go get lifejackets and paddles and then we are ready to get on the water.  (The lifejackets would have fit me when I was 12, but since we don’t actually have to wear them, I CAN swim and Erin is like a fish in the water I figure it doesn’t really matter.)

I will spare you the details of actually getting into the kayak but suffice to say getting out of the kayak afterwards was the only thing more awkward than getting in.

All of this leadup to tell you that I’m so glad we went.  The geology of Flaming Gorge is very much like the geology around Moab, UT and reminded me of the canoe trips we have taken down the Green River through Stillwater & Labrinth Canyons ~ hands down some of the most amazing scenery I’ve ever experienced.

About 10 minutes of struggling to make the paddle work the way it should (what do I know about kayak paddling?!), we ended up in an inlet that was familiar to me and so beautiful it was breathtaking.  The phrase “as above so below” applied here; not in the Buddhist(?) context you might think of, but in the reflection of the canyon walls/plant life/sky mirrored minutely and deliciously in that still water.  I will never forget the beauty and timelessness that caught my attention and stopped everything.  Every second of my anxiety getting there was worth it in that moment.  Blue, blue sky; red, red rocks; green, green scrub cedar coming all the way to the water’s edge.  The illusion that if you chose to step out of the kayak and into the water you would glide upwards into the depths of those blues and reds and greens was complete.

Pure magic on a summer’s day in a man-made lake with nowhere to be but there.