Class 2 Adventure

Ever wonder how you can make a class 2 river more exciting? Just add kids! A few days ago my husband and I took our kids to the Hiwassee River for a class 2 adventure.

When I was first pregnant, my husband and I debated about the best way to get our kids on the river. After much consideration, we decided on an inflatable kayak. This year, our kids are finally old enough (2 and 5) for us to have one person paddle the inflatable with them and the other person hard-shell.
With kids, every day is a new adventure, and you have to be ready for everything to change. One minute, my son was yelling “I love rapids!” at the top of his voice while my daughter was cowering trying not to get splashed. The next minute, my son would yell “Me no like rapids!” while my daughter giggled with glee while sticking her head out to get splashed at the very front of the inflatable.
Regardless of their ever changing attitudes, the constant state was the need for snacks. We snacked our way from rapid to rapid, even losing a poor graham cracker overboard when an unsuspecting wave crashed.

Now that the kids only need one of us in the inflatable with them, my husband and I are able to take turns in our hard-shell. Despite the class 2 river, there’s still plenty of place to surf and stern squirt. Last weekend was my husband’s turn. He took a JK Antix and found even more great stern squirt eddies than we expected! Plus, he even used the last lake to practice a few hand rolls (believe me, it’s been a while).
The low stress nature of the class 2 day, makes a great way to practice skills. We’re still having trouble finding time to get out individually on hard rivers as much as we would like. However, being able to share the river and love of kayaking and whitewater with our children more than makes up for it. As the kids get older, we look forward to them paddling hard-shells along with us. However, for now, we’ll continue our class 2 adventures! ~Diane Brasuell (Gaydos)