Close Encounters of the Toothy Kind!
Posted: September 7th, 2010, 9:40 pm
My wife wanted to take the kayaks out on Labor Day, but didn't want to go all the way to the coast, so I made the mistake of telling her "I will load the kayak trailer, you pick the spot where you want to go." She got on line and found a kayak trail at Lake Lafayette, so off we went over to Chaires to launch the kayaks.
At the ramp near the railroad crossing, we met up with a couple of guys in a jon boat asking us "Which way to the open water?" We didn't have a clue so we set off in the opposite direction from the one they took - Me paddling my kayak and Melissa and Andrew in hers. After a few miles paddling through muck and weeds so thick you could hear them scraping the bottom of the kayaks, we began to tire, and stopped for lunch. The thick weeds then got even thicker, so we decided to head back to the ramp.
Melissa stopped to take a picture and I paddled ahead of she and Andrew cruising back down the same weedy trail we had just passed through. About halfway back I must have startled a good sized gator basking in the sun. I never saw him coming, just heard a loud bump against my kayak and saw his jaws clamp down on the port side right between my ankle and left knee. I was still moving forward at the time and his teeth were grinding down the side of my boat toward where my butt was sitting. As I moved my knees as far to the right as possible and raised my paddle, he let go of the kayak and closed his mouth sitting about a foot to my left side. Not wanting to give him a chance to make a second lunge at me, I placed the end of my paddle on top of his head and shoved for all I was worth. This helped me out in two ways 1. It pushed him all the way to the bottom of the swamp and 2. it moved me sideways several feet to my right and away from him. He swam about 30 feet under water, then resurfaced and kept moving away from me. Luckily, he turned down a side trail in the opposite direction from the way we had to go to get back.
At this point Melissa anounced from behind me "If I never see this place again, it will be too soon!" We all agreed that suddenly, the coast didn't seem so far after all. See you in the saltwater!
Steve, Melissa, and Andrew Stinson
At the ramp near the railroad crossing, we met up with a couple of guys in a jon boat asking us "Which way to the open water?" We didn't have a clue so we set off in the opposite direction from the one they took - Me paddling my kayak and Melissa and Andrew in hers. After a few miles paddling through muck and weeds so thick you could hear them scraping the bottom of the kayaks, we began to tire, and stopped for lunch. The thick weeds then got even thicker, so we decided to head back to the ramp.
Melissa stopped to take a picture and I paddled ahead of she and Andrew cruising back down the same weedy trail we had just passed through. About halfway back I must have startled a good sized gator basking in the sun. I never saw him coming, just heard a loud bump against my kayak and saw his jaws clamp down on the port side right between my ankle and left knee. I was still moving forward at the time and his teeth were grinding down the side of my boat toward where my butt was sitting. As I moved my knees as far to the right as possible and raised my paddle, he let go of the kayak and closed his mouth sitting about a foot to my left side. Not wanting to give him a chance to make a second lunge at me, I placed the end of my paddle on top of his head and shoved for all I was worth. This helped me out in two ways 1. It pushed him all the way to the bottom of the swamp and 2. it moved me sideways several feet to my right and away from him. He swam about 30 feet under water, then resurfaced and kept moving away from me. Luckily, he turned down a side trail in the opposite direction from the way we had to go to get back.
At this point Melissa anounced from behind me "If I never see this place again, it will be too soon!" We all agreed that suddenly, the coast didn't seem so far after all. See you in the saltwater!
Steve, Melissa, and Andrew Stinson
