A Day of Firsts

Recently, some friends of ours (Darren and Sandra) bought a couple of kayaks.  As we talked about that one day Darren said, "You guys kayak and canoe on the Souris once in a while, right?  We should go together some time".  That sounded like fun, so I told him to pick a day.

Well, today was "sometime" and the maiden voyage for them.  Sadly, Sara was away, so she had to miss out on this one.

As you can tell from the pictures, it was sort of cloudy and a little breezy, but all in all, it was a lot of fun.
 

As we were going along, Darren said, "Look at that guy!" and here is what we saw......



Its a huge snapping turtle.  It was about the size of a basketball (or bigger) and it had a spikey tail (you can see that in the picture) and huge claws.  We always see tons of little turtles when we are down there.  They are always out sitting on the fallen trees in the sun, but this is the first time I have seen a big guy like this.

At first I thought it was dead because it was just laying there, but it turns out that he was just cold.  Darren gave it a poke with his paddle and it started moving very slowly.  I challenged Darren to pick it up and cuddle it until it got warm - just to see what would happen..... but he refused.  Chicken!  :)

As I said, it was a little windy but a good first day on the water. Darren and Sandra had a good time too and so I am sure that the four of us (and anyone else who wants to come) will be doing this a lot more this summer. 

It is always fun to be on the river.  :)