Kayaking @ Nashua River

Kayaking is a great activity in the COVID-19 outbreak. Kayaking is much easier to comply with social distancing practices. Hiking is also good outdoor activity, however, as snow melt in New England, more people come out for hikes and now it is hard to have enough distances from others on narrow trails. 

Thus we went kayaking on Nashua river. We started in the city of Pepperell, which is 50 minute drive from Boston. This time we kayaked out and back, total 7 miles. 

Launching area

I was a little worried about launching might have other cars. Luckily there was no cars. The right picture is the launching area. The sign of river was funny. Between "NASHUA" and "RIVER" there was blue line. I first thought that somebody's vandalism. Then I realized that it was a drawing for river😆

Swan

We saw swans and geese. Actually I had never seen swans in California, but here in New England there are many opportunities to see them. 

Tree reflecting on the river

On the way kayaking was smooth and enjoyed a lot. Water was calm and trees on the shore was reflecting on the river. The hard part was the latter half coming back to the launching area. Why?  Because the air was leaking from the kayak! Our kayak is an inflatable one. Every time we start, we pump it up. Our pump has a gage of pressure and we always have air at an ideal pressure (1-2 psi). Luckily the holes were very little, so we didn't sink. However, even with little leak, less air makes kayak move forward much less. To make kayak move ahead, we needed to paddle much harder. Mr.N had a harder time, because his section (rear) sunk more than my area (front) due to his weight is heavier than mine. 

Upon coming home we found some holes and patched, but there was still leak. We called the company and sent pictures. They tried to argue that we didn't pump the air at the right pressure and asked if we used the pump with gauge to measure pressure. We sent our pump with a gauge. Actually our pump is their brand! So they couldn't argue more and they sent a new part of kayak. Yay the squeaky wheel gets the oil. We can go kayaking again with new part we got.