Kayak

Found a canoe launch at a beautiful pond surrounded by reeds and forest, and it confirmed what I'd been suspecting: I need a kayak! Been thinking of trying to rent one since I got here, but haven't got a chance yet.

But now I'm actually considering buying an inflatable kayak. I've kindof wanted something like a canoe for some years. A kayak would make more sense since it'd probably usually just be me in it. The biggest reason why I didn't, besides price, was transporting it. Would need a roof rack or something, and couldn't take it anywhere far. And where to store it? I had heard of inflatable kayaks. That would be a very portable solution, they can pack small enough to even be carry-on on flights. But I figured they'd be pretty sucky, like just narrow rubber dingies. Looking into it more though, it sounds like they're "real" water craft. There are ones that are valid for class 4 rapids even (though I'd be looking for one aimed at flat water lakes/coastline, rivers, gentle sea). I was reading a bit of national geographic about someone taking their inflatable 600 miles along the niger river to timbuktu. So they're definitely hardy and can be considered "real" water craft. So now the biggest concern would be price. Looks like in the order of $900 for a decent one (though of course you could go far higher, and perhaps a bit lower), plus $100 for a pfd and $100-$200 for a paddle. That's a decent size investment. But if I'll make use of it, and if it'll last several years, it's not so bad.

Once that decision's made, it'd be cool to get right away, use it here, but the problem with buying away from home is there's no local store to go back to if there are problems a month down the line. Should've looked into it more back home, oh well. Anyways, need to consider it a bit more.