Katie and Garret went out to the lake by themselves on Thursday. They swam, went kayaking, rode the 4 wheeler, and jumped off the bridge. Kirt and I were working and Tanner had online school.
Friday, Katie and Garret and I went to the lake. Katie brought her friends Tanaeya Thompson and Mary Gubler and Garret brought his friend Jaden Thompson. Michelle and the kids came out too. We swam, jumped off the bridge, rode the jet ski. Katie, Tanaeya, Mary, Garret, and Jaden all tried to ride the jet ski at one time. They kept tipping it and falling off. It was hilarious. They ended up making 2 trips to get to the rope swing since all 5 could not fit on at once. Katie and her friends rode the 4 wheeler too. Kirt and Tanner came out in the afternoon. Tanner and Kirt spent the night but the kids and I had to go home to take their friends home. It was a beautiful day at the lake.
Saturday morning, Kirt and Tanner went for a 4 wheeler ride before Katie, Garret, and I got back up to the lake. Jon and Michelle and the kids came out again too. Max and Shane Skidmore came up in the afternoon to hang out with Tanner and Garret. Kirt has always had this idea to kayak down Brickel Creek which is the creek that feeds into Spirit Lake. Tanner was going to go with him today, but they didn't get going soon enough and he didn't think he would be back before Max got there. I said that I would go with Kirt. I had rode up Brickel Creek on the jet ski with Kirt before and it was flat and calm so I thought it would be a nice easy float down. We loaded the 2 kayaks on the top of the Sequoia and Katie dropped us off at the bridge over the creek. I looked at the creek and saw how fast it was flowing and wasn't sure I wanted to go. It was white water kayaking, not an easy float. Kirt said that I would be fine. We started down and not 20 feet down there were a ton of branches across the creek. I couldn't paddle away from them so I tried to duck and fell out of my kayak. I managed to get back in and start back down the creek. Not 20 feet later the same thing happened again except this time my kayak got away from me and started down the creek without me. Kirt quickly paddled after it and he fell out of his kayak. He got back in a was soon out of my view. I started walking down stream. The water was only calf deep in most places, but it was flowing so fast that I was afraid I was going to be swept off my feel. I had been walking for about 10 minutes, wondering if Kirt had been able to catch my kayak and what I would do if he didn't come back when I see him walking back to me. He had stopped my kayak and found a place to pull them off the side of the creek a ways downstream. We got to our kayaks and we started off again. Not 20 feet later it all happens again, branches over the creek and I fall out of my kayak. I grab it this time so it doesn't go down stream without me, but it drags me for quite a way before I can get it to stop. By this time I am done. I told Kirt that I was not going any farther. We thankfully we not far from the road at this time. We pulled my kayak out and walked it to the road. Of course we don't have any cell service at this point. Kirt really wanted to keep going down the creek so I told him to keep going and to check his phone every 15 minutes or so and when he got cell service to call someone to come and pick me up. After 2 hours and I'm still sitting there waiting, I decide to start walking. I'm about 8 miles from Silver Beach. After walking for about 15 minutes, Kirt comes down the road in the Sequoia. He had rode down the creek about 2 miles (only about a mile down the road, the creek went out away from the road and then came back close to the road). He said it had just gotten way worse. There were branches so low across the creek that Kirt had to carry his kayak up over the branches. So when he saw that he was close to the road again, he carried his kayak out to the road and started walking. He didn't walk far before a car came by and he hitched hiked back to Silver Beach. He got the car and came and picked me up. We loaded me kayak on the top of the Sequoia, went and picked up Kirt's kayak and loaded it up. Then Kirt decided he wanted to float down the calm part of the creek. So we went to the closer bridge and unloaded his kayak again. He kayaked down the rest of the calm creek and then all the way across Spirit Lake to our beach. It was quite the adventure. I went on a fun 4 wheeler ride with Jon and some of the kids. He showed me some new trails that were really cool.
White water part of Brickel Creek
This is what I was imagining it would be like. Nice and calm
The 4 wheeler trails that Jon showed me. You get to cross a stream on them.
