Returned to Blue Ridge with Anna's new kayak (A yellow version of the same boat I have). We also brought the canoe for our friends Chelsea and Pete. Huge difference between a canoe and a kayak. Once you've been in a kayak, paddling a canoe feels like you are trying to move a cruise ship.

My first order of business was to see if I could recover the lifevest I had left behind two weeks ago. I took off in the kayak on my own while the others lagged behind. Just as I arrived at the spot where I had left the lifevest, I noticed the group of kayakers who had stopped at the very same place for a break. Knowing my chances of finding the vest were close to nil, I went ahead and mentioed my loss to the kayakers on the bank. The one guy in the group, reached into his kayak and picked up a lifevest, "This one?" "Yep, that's it," I replied. The guy was kind enough to toss me my lifevest. I stayed and chatted with the group for a few minutes, then headed back to find the rest of my group. All the while, I contemplated how perfect the timing was in retrieving the lifevest. Had we been another 10-15 minutes later, those people would have been on the water and off with the goods. How lucky that the vest sat there undisturbed for 2 weeks and then was found just moments before I arrived at the same spot.

Anyway, back to the trip. We paddled down the western fork of the lake, taking turns in the kayaks and canoe. We stopped at a cool flat camp/picnic area and I did a little rock climbing here and there (had my climbing shoes with me). On our way back to the boat ramp, we stopped so that I could have some fun on a 20 foot high ball climb over deep water.

The trip was a success. The four of us had redeemed ourselves from a less than stellar outing on the Verde River a month earlier and I recovered the lost lifevest.