Playtime!: Fall Fun – Kayaking at Fountainhead Regional Park!

My plan today was to hang out at home, get ready for the week, read a book, a low key Sunday. I went out to Wegmans and noticed that it was a beautiful day and I knew I had to get out and play! I was thinking that I’d go over to Prince William Forest Park and hike, then I logged into Meetup.com to RSVP for an upcoming game night (which I still haven’t done yet!) and saw that someone had posted about a last minute kayaking meetup that happened at 10 am this morning. (see the news feed on Meetup.com isn’t all bad!) I’d missed the meetup but it reminded me that Fountainhead Regional Park had kayaks to rent! I knew what I wanted to do this afternoon!

I decided that I needed to wear my long underwear, it was chilly out and I was afraid if I got wet it would be really cold! I was quite styling with my “still muddy from yesterday” hiking pant, pink long underwear sticking out, and Teva sandals – barefoot (there’s no way that I know to get into a kayak without getting your feet wet!)

I headed over to Fountainhead and found the marina. I was disappointed to learn that there were no kayaks available. I was not surprised though, it was a fabulous fall day! I decided to wait and see if someone came back – within about 30 minutes I had my kayak! They handed me a life jacket (that didn’t zip….wouldn’t have zipped on someone half my size!) and a paddle and that was that. I headed down to the boat area and found 2 kayaks – I presumed that these were the rentals and got in and pushed off!

The Occoquan Reservoir isn’t Lower Richardson Lake, but it was a very nice paddle! I also realized that this is my backyard! Literally, I can walk less than a 1/4 mile and be standing in the reservoir! I was thinking that if I owned a kayak, it would be really easy to use it a lot! I know lots of people who keep kayaks and canoes down by the water – locked to a tree and covered ready for use. Even if that didn’t work there are several put in locations on both sides of the water.

I didn’t take many pictures, but here are few….