By Ben McMillen

It was just 33 degrees when I loaded up my truck the morning of April 29th, 2018. There was actually ice built up on my Kayak as I dragged it through my yard.

​I considered cancelling the trip but we didn't feel like waiting for mother nature to let go of her winter grip. The way things have been going this year it will probably snow in June. My nephew Brett and his girlfriend layered up and joined me for our first float of 2018.

It finally warmed up to about 38 degrees when we hit the Monongahela at 10am. We dropped in at the end of the Old Ferry Road in Crucible PA and pulled out at just 2 miles away at the Lock Wall in Rices Landing PA. Good times.

Recent 2018 POLL of Greene County Recreational Kayakers

RECREATIONAL KAYAKS
"SIT-IN" TYPE OR "SIT-ON" TYPE KAYAKS PREFERRED BY RECREATIONAL KAYAKERS IN GREENE COUNTY

• 80.5% SIT-IN TYPE KAYAK PREFERRED
• 19.5 SIT-ON TYPE OF KAYAK PREFERRED

LENGTH OF KAYAKS PREFERRED BY RECREATIONAL KAYAKERS IN GREENE COUNTY

• 64% PREFER 10 FOOT KAYAKS
• 24% PREFER 12 FOOT KAYAKS
• 5.5% PREFER 9 FOOT KAYAKS
• 5.5% PREFER 8 FOOT KAYAKS

Experienced local kayaker Jason Forbes also offered some advice for new people getting into recreational kayaking.
"A lot of factors can come into play here. If the bottom of the boat has a V shape, it will most likely track better. By "track", I mean if you stop paddling, it's how the kayak "drifts". A smooth or round bottom boat is much more likely to turn to one side or spin around. 

A longer boat generally adds a little more stability. Boats intended for whitewater kayaking are very short and have smooth, rounded bottoms. This allows the paddler to spin and maneuver the boat around obstacles very freely. However, on flat water (creeks, ponds, lakes, etc) a whitewater boat is more difficult to paddle in a straight line. On the flip side, a 12' v bottom boat will usually track very straight, but would not do as well in big rapids. 8' and 10' boats are among the most common entry level boats for Greene County."

See more info on types of Kayaks and how to choose here

Here we dug up some youtube videos people have made kayaking in and around Greene County. Enjoy!

For the first blog post I thought I would post some images submitted by local kayakers from trips in Greene County and beyond! Thanks to the following people who submitted these images:

Brandy Andrade
Dawn Wood
Eric Davis
Gretchen Georgi Brandstetter
Joe Moore
John Grim
Jonathan Phillps
Justin Phillps
Kevin Rohland
Michelle Mego Nelson
Russell Johnson
Shanna Yourchik
​Steve Bifano
​Tom Akrom