Paddling Kayak At Lake Woodlands

Article By Shorty


There is a small lake near our house called "Lake Woodlands". It is an artifically made 200 acre lake that has it's west shore lined by very expensive houses.

My first trip out was a quick one, just me and Morgan. I didn't have any scupper hole plugs, so as soon as I sat down in my seat, the boat filled with about 1 inch of water. The seats are set rather low in the hull to lower the center of gravity and make it a more stable boat.

Morgan and I paddled from the launch ramp at the north end to the dragon at the south end of the lake. It was about a mile or so of a paddle, and then we got out to sit on a park bench to eat some crackers.

This is what the rest of the lake looks like from the southern end. It is the widest down here narrowing as it goes to the north.

Trip #2 - My wife Stephanie want to get in on the fun so we all went out for a paddle. To fill up the scupper holes, I purchased 4 bath tub type drain plugs and shoved them in the drain holes from the bottom going up. This proved to be very effective at keeping the water out.

We headed down to the main attraction of the lake - Morgan's "pet dragon".

I am extremely happy with the stability of this kayak. Darby would randomly lunge over the side to splash in the water. Happiest kid on the planet - and she didn't even come close to knocking us over.

On the paddle back I struck a course more towards the middle of the lake taking advantage of a stern wind. The very small 4" chop combined with my sloppy paddling, Morgan scooping water in with her baby doll, and Darby's occasional lunging invited water over the sides. A little bit more water... then a little more... then my wife's butt got wet.

"Hey Dave, are we going to sink?"

I just love this boat, with only 3 inches of freeboard left, I had no fear of having to swim the family to the shore. I pulled out a plastic cup and started to bail some of the water out. The "trunk" area behind me had filled with water and that seemed to be the biggest problem besides my weight. After emptying the trunk and bailing the rest of the water out we paddled the rest of the way back to the ramp.



Trip #3 - Avoiding the usual Monday night grocery store trip, my wife called me on the way home and told me to strap Boppy to the car, we were going out for a paddle! Now who could argue with that? We decided to explore the other end of Lake Woodlands paddling up to the two creeks that feed the lake.

After going under the bridge we went up the creek on the left. There has been a lot of rain around here lately and all the water levels are up as well as the water flow rate. I kinda expected it to be tougher, but was easily able to make head way against the flow.

The girls wanted to get out at this building and walk around a bit so I hopped out with them.

Steph followed us around the path way.



This picture really does a good job showing how little a boat this thing is, yet it holds 2 adults and 2 kids very comfortably.



Darby sat in my lap on the way back to help paddle. And her rubber duckie helped too. :)