Otter Bar Day 4

Wednesday

It is Wednesday afternoon. I thought today would be the day I learned to roll up when my kayak tips over. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do that. I got in the water and did some warm-up paddling, going into eddies and with rescues. I’m pretty confident that if I flip I’ll be able to get out without a wet exit, which means I won’t pull the release on my skirt. I’m not, at least this time, going to be able to learn how to roll myself upright. I was practicing rolling up with one of our instructors, Leah. The first basic part of rolling up is using pressure from the right knee to get the boat moving towards being right side up. I was up and down about 20 times, and started to get it, but then my left ear started hurting. The next time I came up, everything was spinning. It was like being on a merry go round. We waited for a little while, but nothing changed. So I decided rather than risk having balance issues tomorrow when we’re back on the river, I would quit for the day.

I just took a bunch of pictures of the group, and after that I tried to figure out how to use Apple’s Garage Band to record an interview. I’m sitting out on my room’s porch. A humming bird is buzzing around a little island garden that’s worked into the huge lawn firebreak that surrounds the Otter Bar Lodge. There is a pretty intense forest fire going southwest of us, and the smoke is blowing in this direction. It’s really beautiful here but it would be nice if we didn’t’ have so much ash coming in.

No one is upset by the fires. We’re all in a really good place by now. This has really been a nice break. I’m looking forward to another couple of days on the river.

Well, I’m off to lie down inside where the air is maybe a bit fresher and then maybe a nap?