Kayaking the Tobacco River

We love fishing at Thayer’s Lake. We kept saying that one day we want to kayak down the Tobacco River that flows out of the lake.

Well, there was a cache (geocashing) hidden down the river so we decided that was the perfect reason to get out and go do it!

For clarification, we have inflatable kayaks. They work well, although we have to be a little careful of sticks and such. Thankfully, there are not many sticks in the river. However, there is no lack of beaver activity!

Not far from Thayer’s Lake we hit our first roadblock…a nice beaver dam. It hasn’t been there too long to where there was a drop off on the other side. We were able to get out of our kayaks, cross the dam on foot and get back in our kayaks on the other side. Then it was some nice kayaking for about 1/2 mile or so.

We were less than 200 feet from where the cache was hidden when the eerie sound of a waterfall filled our ears. You see it all the time in the movies. People are boating down a river and then you hear rushing water. While it wasn’t a huge waterfall, it was about 3 or so feet high and full of nice pointy sticks. At the dam, we were about 100 feet from the cache.

We got out of our kayaks and surveyed the situation. The vegetation we would have to go through to bypass going down the river was pretty treacherous. The beavers made booby traps – you think you are on solid ground but then your leg drops two and a half feet. We were only on branches.

The bugs sensed that the three of us were standing there scratching our heads on what to do next and came in for a viscous attack. Do we go for it to try to find the cache or admit defeat?

We admitted defeat. Tough to do, but we really weren’t prepared for major buckwacking to reach the cache. Perhaps another time.

I can’t stop smiling about it, though. It was so much fun regardless!

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