Here is Melissa with her new boat and paddle. It was a little early in the morning for her but she was still a willing participant. Little did she know what was to come.
The morning was perfect. There was a mist coming off the water which we really enjoyed. The water was perfectly still allowing some awesome reflections.
About a mile in we came to a fork in the slough and being the curious explorer I decided to take the smaller less traveled path. At the beginning of the path it was about twenty five feet wide. No problem, we can do it. Half a mile more it narrowed and split around islands diverging and reconnecting. At that point I still am thinking that we will eventually reconnect with the main channel. Plus, the pictures I am getting are great. After about a mile though things start getting tighter. I put the camera away and have to start paddling on the bank on each side of the boat because of how narrow it has become. As if things were not bad enough the path turns in a direction I know is not going to reunite us with the main channel and now the path we are on is to shallow for even the kayaks to float. I didn't want to have to make Melissa have to back paddle half a mile to a place were we could turn around. But if we were going to have to go back I wanted to take the most direct route so I found the most secure patch of sludgy marsh I could find and got out of my boat for a better look. It is funny but God must have been guiding my way because when I stood up I looked in the direction I thought the main channel to be it was only twenty feet away over a hill. The path we were taking never met the channel again. There was only one way in and one way out. If I had of taken any of the many other options I don't know what we would have had to do. It's a good thing God loves Melissa because He probably would have let me struggle in the maze a little longer. I know I would have.
The above picture shows the main channel on the left and the one we were in on the right. 
New experiences for Melissa. She had never done a portage before and with some help from myself she accomplished her first seal launch off the bank. It was about a foot and a half drop to the water, not bad for the first time. She was quite the trooper through the whole ordeal as evidenced by the smile on her face in the picture.
Smooth sailing once again.
Well almost, apparently she got some mud on her hands and was not sure if she wanted to rinse them in the water. I tried not to laugh at her too much because I got a little more than just my hands muddy trying to keep her clean while helping her in and out of her boat. 
End of the road. We finally got to the end of the Coalbank Slough and stopped to eat lunch. Over all it was an enjoyable time.
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