Blog

Lake Martin is truly a wonderful place that never gets old, especially when you have perfect weather and a perfect sunset. We put in on time, but with the early sunset at 6:00 pm, we had to get in and get moving without delay. We got our sunset photo and started moving to the south end of theRead more

You know its gonna be a good day when you start it with an early morning paddle at Lake Martin. It started a little chilly but that didn’t keep us away.  With a mix of kayaks, canoes and one paddle board we made our way to the south end of the lake. We meandered throughRead more

Once we unloaded boats and people at Lake Martin, we found out that this was a group that was in search of alligators, so we headed north.  We meandered through the cypress, stopping to absorb the wonderful sights and sounds of nature.  And what do you know, at a couple of these stops we didRead more

We departed Pack & Paddle shortly after 7am, with a cheerful and exuberant crowd. After a short uneventful drive, we arrived at Lake Martin and unloaded our gear. After a brief review of paddling protocol we put the boats in the water and spent a few minutes acclimating to our new craft.  We started ourRead more

Tom with his own sit-on-top kayak, Hans with his own 17-foot-long sit-inside sea kayak, and Richard and Laura with 14-foot sit-inside kayaks from Pack & Paddle had a sunny start in the swimming pool. Here they practiced several self and assisted rescues.             We started with assisted sit-on-top kayak rescues, followed by assistedRead more

We had an awfully early start this morning, met at Pack and Paddle for 5:30AM. That put us on the water just as the sun was rising. Everyone, surprisingly at this hour, was chatty with smiling faces and plenty of pep for the morning paddle. The stillness of our surroundings was only broken by the splashRead more

This was a private trip for the First Baptist Youth Group.  A great group of mostly high schoolers who were up for the challenge of paddling most of the lake.  We had lots of help unloading boats before giving quick paddling instruction.  We headed to the south side of the lake first to paddle withinRead more

Once we got the boats unloaded near the boat landing at Lake Martin and I gave very brief paddling instruction, I asked the group if they wanted to see birds on the south end near the rookery or alligators and birds on the north end of the lake.  It was an overwhelming vote for alligators. Read more

Cynthia, Tom, and Jan enjoyed a cool morning start in a sun-warmed pool for their 102 kayaking class. Cynthia and Tom both have sit-on-top kayaks and wanted to learn more about how they can do self and assisted rescues. Jan was interested in learning similar rescues for sit-inside kayaks. We started with sit-on-top rescues. The studentsRead more

Lake Martin is at its peak beauty, in my opinion, in late Spring.  There are all sorts of iris along the edge of the lake beside the old boat house where we put our boats in the water colors ranging from pink to purple to yellow.  And the rookery is at its peak, with allRead more