Your Friendly Trespasser

As it seems that I have reached the first McDonald’s that doesn’t have wi-fi, I feel like it’s time to fill in the blanks a little on our journey thus far, as posts have been rather translucent of late. Current location: a mile inland of Vanceburg, KY (roughly, mile 278+--Thanks, Jerry Hays aka Jerry Hay’s Ohio River Guidebook—oh, and we might actually meet Jerry Hay!)

(Section 1 of Jerry Hay's Ohio Guidebook)

After leaving Belpre, OH and the comforts of local support kayakers, I went back into crew mode—next level. When we have local kayakers, they usually have family shuttle them and also help me to wrap my head around the constantly changing terrain. As that was no longer the case, I worked to be a one-woman pit crew—not gonna lie, sometimes reluctantly. So far, this has sometimes included wading to my ankles in mud, strapping up the kayak under 10 minutes and of course, by far the most colorful of endeavors, trespassing on people’s property for the take outpoint. 20 miles it is!

Trespassing is second nature. Why, there’s been the man on the hog farm in Antiquity, OH who let us stow the kayak in his barn and had tied it to his ATV the next morning to bring it to bank, The dad of 6 who helped us haul out at his campground after waiting nearly 2 hours to see Mimi, Dave the reclusive West Virginian whose almost invisible bank (from the river) proved the only take out point for a few miles. He was an interesting case as he lived on the edge of neighbors alone with his 2 dogs (one, little hootie who I fell in love with!) but I thought to myself, lord let him not be crazy as I am not a fully indoctrined ninja, upon trespassing. Those are just some—who knows the lady’s name who was worried as Mimi rose out of her backyard yesterday or even the man who gave me his binoculars today as we tried to calculate when they might swim past. I’ve been secretively freaked out some of the time, but I run out there, smile, and hope they don’t have a gun.

self-portrait on hay

I also haven’t been keeping up on some of the amazing people. Sharon, who left not that long ago, but in river days, seems like ages, was hilarious. As the language we used is not suitable for children, let alone most well-behaved adults, I will leave it at that. Humor has been a constant pleasure and relief. Even after 20 miles, Mimi will come out and make me laugh. I try to return the favor, but of course it hasn’t been all laughs. I have been guilty of crying on more than one occasion already, and none of them have involved amazing adventure wounds. Being on the road, the unknown can be brilliant, but also trying and with our list of casualties, I feel like I might be excused from a few tears.

Having recently been ill, I am now just happy to have a good bill of health. What made the last few days possible was the support from Cindy’s husband, Dave who was an awesome logistics person (aka super shuttle) and a ‘yes’ man. Can you help ….? Answer: YES. We need more of those. Also, we recently stayed with Marsha, a forest ranger in Ohio’s Wayne Forest who is joining us now and has also helped arrange places for us to stay the last few nights! I slept in a tent in her marina, and it was magical (minus the sick part). I could see the lights reflect on the river from her tent and as I walked along the green grass sidewalks, tons of fireflies lit my path. I had a cautionary voice next to me in Barbara, a doctor and current kayaker as I’d try to stick my fork in something delicious and she’d sa y, “I wouldn’t do that”, and to my dissatisfaction, I’d obey.

(doctor barbara cleans her tevas, miles 340-400)

Mimi and I have had a Charlie (as in Charlie’s Angels) for some time now—a kind voice (and in our case, nimble fingers) in the form of a man, Jerry, who types up daily briefs about each day’s upcoming 20 mile venture. Not unlike the angels, our info points out the ‘villains’ or upcoming pollutants and other dangers (as well as fun facts and logistics). We will actually stay with him one night when we reach Cincinnati in the upcoming week.

We are an evolving family, and I’m just happy to be part of the experience. Sometimes I am so in this moment that I can’t pick up a camera, I just have to be happy existing in it.