We started out by looking for kayaking tours in the area and came across Water's Edge. They have an excellent website, so it seemed trustworthy at first. We called the day before to make sure we were all good to go and had to call 5 times just for anyone to even answer the phone. They "don't have us down for the trip, but it'll probably be fine."
When we arrive, there are some other kayakers there, everyone seems to be hanging out. The guy "in charge" isn't there yet. I'm not sure what was taking so long, considering the business is the back building of his house.
When he does finally arrive, it's past the time we were supposed to be starting (9 a.m.). We were told on the phone to arrive 20 minutes before departure, but this was completely unnecessary as we didn't actually begin to kayak till past 10 a.m.
After waiting in line for a considerable amount of time, finally getting our life jackets, we're waiting for the "shuttle" to arrive. I had seen some coolers inside while waiting in line and figured we should purchase some bottles of water for the trip, since it's hotter than I initially expected it to be. They have THREE bottles of water available and enough microwaveable meals to feed everyone who's signed up that day. Including a giant tub of pulled pork BBQ.
There's about 60 people in our group and it's over 90 degrees outside in the sun. They load the kayaks on the "shuttle" and we all get in. "Shuttle" is in parenthesis because it's just an incredibly old school bus with black spray paint all over it. The other "shuttle" is a full size van with the entire body about to rust off. The van is having issues and needing jumper cables. It won't start. Also, remember there's a ton of people on this bus that has no air ventilation whatsoever. Our driver gets off the bus and they're all yelling across the lot about finding the jumper cables, it's a whole ordeal. Our driver isn't even officially part of Water Edge's. He told us in the parking lot that this is only the second time he's helped out the guy "in charge" in summer. There is no way he had a license to drive this bus.
They finally get the jumper cables, the van is running, and we're back in business. That is, until our driver gets back on the bus, which is now not starting. We're laughing at this point, wondering if we'll even get to the drop-off point. After another 5 minutes of trying to get the bus to start, it does, fortunately. As we pull out of the driveway, the driver yells back that if someone could keep an eye on the kayaks to make sure we don't lose any of them, it would be great. Everyone is concerned at this point.
The drive is considerably longer than 6 miles, it seemed really far. The whole drive, the metal bar on the bottom of the seat in front of me, is banging into my shin. It's just falling off of the seat, complete with rusty screws sticking out. After a super bouncy, yet terrifying ride through the hills and woods we FINALLY ARRIVE TO KAYAK. Our good moods are back in full swing, we're so ready to do this. Everyone just stands around for a while, not knowing what to do. We just get our kayaks and get in the water.
The actual kayaking was great: super hot in the sun, but cool in the shade. The water was a little low, I got stuck about 5 times and had to drag my kayak to get it fixed. But the pace was good and everything went smooth.
After it seems to be taking longer than we expected, we began to wonder where the finish point is. We're sure we should've reached it by now. We talk to two other guys who were in our group, who look like they've done this before and they said we had FOUR HOURS LEFT OF THE TRIP. We had already been kayaking for nearly 2. They also tell us that it's not 6 miles, it's more like 9. Those 3 extra miles are a HUGE difference. We didn't put any other sunscreen in the kayak but definitely needed more by the time we were finished. We're burnt to a crisp. Because we didn't plan for an entire day of kayaking, we have to hurry to get back. We power-paddle through this trip just to make it back in a reasonable amount of time. We were the first to finish and it took us 3 hours and we finished way before anybody else did. I thought my arms were going to fall off by the time we pull our kayaks out of the water.
Surprisingly, they have people there to help bring the kayaks up, which I probably wasn't going to do anyway after the day we just had. Nobody says anything to you, you just get in your car and leave.
Overall, we're lucky that we're the type of people who can just laugh through this situation but I'm sure it was over-the-top miserable for other people. I would NOT suggest going here! read more
