Kayaking at the dump

I went kayaking last night with a group of kayakers. I ended up with a wet bum. I had a cockpit cover on my kayak to prevent rain from entering the cockpit and giving me a wet seat, this was so I didn't have to keep flipping the kayak over on the roof of the car. Well, it worked to a point but apparently the cockpit cover can only hold so much water before the elastic sides give up. So my kayak was full of water when I took it off the car. To give it some credit, it was able to hold up to some rain, but apparently three days of rain was more than it could handle. I will have to keep the kayak upside down on the car. At least the cockpit cover will keep the straps inside from flapping against the roof, and keep out bugs and rain when I have it on the ground.

On the rain note, due to the large amount of rain we received over the last few days, the Potomac was a little more odorific than usual. There was also more floating garbage than I am used to seeing. Normally I pick up the occassional bottle, but this time I picked up several Gatorade bottles, an Arizona Iced tea can, two tennis balls, a road hockey ball, a broken canoe paddle, small containers and the whopper was a whole tire, rim and all. Someone else took that on their kayak. It is pretty sad what turns up in our rivers and streams. I see lots of trash when I kayak but I notice that the woods are still relatively trash-free. I wonder if hiking is more of a barrier to the litter bugs than hopping on a boat or tossing something out of a car window. Well, in the end, I feel better for having removed some trash from the river, even if it barely made a dent in the amount still out there.