Girl Meets Outdoors: The Ocmulgee River
Sometimes people come into our lives for a reason.
We may not always know for what reason, but occasionally we get to find out.
A certain outdoorsy person has wandered into my life as of late, and I’ve always been interested in getting outside more and enjoying what we have to offer in the area but I never had someone willing to do it with me. Going canoeing is difficult if you’re on your own. And that’s exactly what I’ve been wanting to do.
I was even reminded of that recently in one of the Facebook Memories posts- three years ago my status was that I wanted to go canoeing. And I finally did it just a few weekends ago.
It helps that we have Ocmulgee Outdoor Expeditions up and running, and a greatly refurbished Amerson River Park.
When you look at the OOE website you’ll see there’s a few options for getting out on the river. There’s a quick float with canoe or kayak or a half day float. They also have tubes available for floating.
And what did I choose? Well, go big or go home as the cliché goes! Me, lil ol me who hadn’t been on a canoe in well over 10 years decided to go for the half day float.
Luckily my date has been on plenty of kayaks.
He came prepared to the nines. He had waters, snacks, three fishing poles and lures and such, chicken marinated since the night before, coals, and a grill top. This was going to be an adventure to match all others I had ever been on.
Let me also note: when they a half day float, it really is a half day.
Our faithful guide Kathleen would take us all up to Pope’s Ferry in an old school bus, there were several of us, and give us plenty of instructions. I may have only been halfway listening because how hard could it really be? Besides, I had my guy with me and he knew what he was doing.
Sort of. Kayaking is different, and when you’re in a one person boat you’re responsible for keeping a lookout as well as steering the vessel. I was in charge of navigating. The first couple of small rapids were harder to navigate than I expected, probably because we had a bunch of gear that I was worried about. But once I figured out what to look for- it wasn’t nearly so bad.
And once he and I figured out how to communicate on the river it made a difference as well. AND we (he) caught four shoal bass! This is the same guy who got me to go fishing for the very first time a few weeks prior, but I didn’t dare on the river. I was too concerned about making sure we didn’t tip over.
But really, getting out on the river and seeing everything was just simply amazing. Aside from making sure we navigated the small (but still significant!) rapids on the river the whole excursion was peaceful.
We even pulled up on a sandbar for a little bit and cooked out- high class all the way y’all 😉
And at the end of our trip we saw the renovated Amerson Park and a stream of tubers coming down the ramp. We pulled up, carried the canoe up and just as we were doing so Kathleen arrived in the bus with chocolate chip cookies and lemonade.
The whole thing was lovely, and I can’t wait to get back out there.
Side bar: Apparently it was a day for me to be outdoors all day long, as my date also got me out on a slackline. Ha! I’ll need to work at it some more.
Y’all need to get out on the river sometime soon.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
