Tiny Scary Things

Cutting through the still, early morning waters of a nearby slow moving river I've managed to come across some tiny scary things lately. Just scary enough to keep my ambitious two and three hour kayak trips down to an hour.

I know, you might be thinking, I thought you were a brave, adventurous kind of chick right? Well, I'll be the first to admit that while I tolerate insects and poison ivy, I'm not about to go rolling in it.

So anyway, I'm paddling along and the river is quite dark since the sun is just barely up in the sky and the tree cover alongside the river lets in just a few slants of sunlight. Up ahead, I see something in the water. At first, I thought- maybe a stick, but then I realized that in fact it was coming towards me at too fast of a rate to be a harmless stick. No, this thing was definitely moving.

Alright, I'd spent a few summers working as a lifeguard at a local lake- snake. No biggy, while snakes move pretty quick on the water and are slimy and all- I'm still good. There is really nothing too poisonous around these parts anyways.

Except there is more to that thing coming towards me. It's fast and it has a fin that is above the water. Yup, a friggin fin. Quick scan of prior knowledge leads me back to the summer my two brothers sought to catch the elusive freshwater eel in a nearby river. Oh crap- an eel.

Oh yes, an eel and I didn't hang out to find out exactly how long this puppy was either- I hightailed it. My kayak is pretty low to the water and I usually don't wear a kayak skirt, so there is a lot of easy crawl space for a fun loving eel to make home. I was reading up on these small finned creatures and discovered that they actually can walk on land. Fun, fun, fun.