Kayaking Elkhorn Slough

We've been talking about kayaking in Elkhorn Slough for a long while now. We so enjoyed kayaking on the lovely little lakes in Massachusetts this past summer, each of us with his/her own kayak, slicing across the calm waters. Last week we were able to make that trip down to Moss Landing and jump in a couple kayaks to explore the slough together as a family. We saw otters, seals, sea lions, many different birds. In fact, while Coleman and I were blabbing away a seal practically jumped onto our kayak! We were all surprised by one another!

Here's how I felt about the physical and mental act of kayaking in the slough: At one point I was paddling so hard, really pushing myself to move forward; I looked to the shore and it seemed that I was going nowhere. Not just nowhere, but backwards (the water flows towards the ocean, we were heading inland). I suddenly felt utter and complete powerlessness. I wanted to just stop paddling, give up. Then I mustered up my mental capacity to overcome the situation, stopped looking at the shore to see my progress(lessness). It was still really hard. At this point both of the boys were sea sick and really cold. They wanted to quit, go home take hot showers, drink hot cocoa, anything but be on the water in a kayak going nowhere fast. We held out, saw some more natural wonder then made our way back, with the tide but against the wind - this was even harder than going inland. I felt positively spent at the end. But I made it, we all did. It reminded me that I can overcome hard things, seemingly impossible things. Put the blinders on, think about what I'm doing and let go of expectation. Eventually we got where we were headed and back again. I could do that again.

Next time we'll bring our cameras and take pictures from the dock or the shore. Who knows, our connections to the Pacific are still developing. It's all about learning and experiencing life together and on our own. This trip motivated me to work a little harder at my daily tasks and the projects I'm taking on. It wasn't a lot of fun in some ways. It was hard. And it was good.