Solo Paddling in Arizona

Will I be Able to Paddle?

One of the other things I did during my trip to Arizona in 2021 was to paddle a nearby river. When I researched the area near where I was camping, I found a river that can be used for paddling. I own an inflatable stand up paddle board (SUP), and I brought it to explore this river. Before I left my campsite I prepared myself and all the necessary supplies to be out on the water for a couple of hours. I packed my waterproof bag with me and put my glucose meter, glucose tablets, lunch, plenty of water, and snacks. I was ready to go paddling! Please read my disclaimer and don’t necessarily do exactly what I did.

When I got to the river, I stopped at the information board and learned that this river paddle was one way. You start at the spot where I was and then paddled down to a location miles away. This meant that you needed two cars, one at each start and stop location. Or you could pay an organization or company, which I didn’t want to waste money on renting a kayak when I had brought my own paddle board. Because I’m not magic (no matter how hard I try) I cannot drive two cars at once, nor can I teleport.

Lucky Me

As I was reading all of the information on the welcome board, two older men also stopped at the board. We got to talking, and they explained to me more about this river paddle. I told them that I was by myself with one car so I wasn’t able to paddle and was going to look at the river and then head out. In a not creepy way, they said if I paddled with them they would drive me back to my car (and their car they were currently in). We all slowly made out way down to the river and got our boards ready for this trip.

They had one paddle board for the both of them. They had strapped two coolers to their SUP so they could sit on them and paddle with kayak paddles. It was as if they had turned their paddle board into a two-person kayak. At the time I thought this was genius, and told them as much. Eventually, we all learned that it wasn’t as genius as we thought. (spoiler: we, mostly them, were not ready for what this river had to offer)

Let’s Go Paddling!

There were some small rapids early on, which is when I realized that standing up while going through rapids is NOT a good idea. I had to kneel most of the time. Kneeling makes me more stable and gives me a stronger paddle.

The parts of the river with rapids made paddling a lot more exciting! And I liked those parts. My least favorite parts were the long sections of river without rapids. The flow was not as strong which meant I had to always paddle in order to move forward, the flow of the river (or lack thereof) didn’t help. This would have been fine otherwise, but I had to paddle to keep up with the two men sharing a board, each with a kayak paddle. They moved much more quickly than I did. Lucky for me, I am super strong and always caught up.

Although I didn’t like the slow sections of river, the provided me the best time to check my blood sugar. During the paddle I don’t remember having to correct for any low or high blood sugar, which is wonderful! Good job body!

Tricky Section of River

The two men and I came to a bottleneck. It was right before the river narrowed, sped up, and took some turns. The trees and shrubs that surrounded the river, made this narrow section seem even more narrow. This part could only take one paddler at a time. Due to the turns and trees you couldn’t see more than 10 feet down this section, making it impossible to see when the paddler in front of you had made it through. And this meant that unless you had paddled this river before, you had no idea what you were paddling into. The information board said that this paddle was easy with a few rapids, so I wasn’t worried I couldn’t handle it. But the unexpected always brings some level of unease.  

Our Plan Moving Forward

We decided that the men would go first, I would wait around 30 seconds, then I would head down after them. At this point there were at least five other paddlers patiently waiting for us to head down. The men headed down and I counted to 30. After 30 seconds I yelled (I am very loud if I need to be) “I’m heading down, did you make it through?!” I didn’t hear a response, waited a few more seconds, then headed down.

Not even five seconds in, I saw one of the men stuck in the river without their SUP or his paddle. He was blocking my path, and the river was moving me way too fast, I couldn’t stop or divert.  When I realized what was going to happen I screamed “I’m going to hit you, I can’t stop!” I hit him, my SUP and I spun 360 degrees, then I kept heading down the river. After my 360, I saw the other man walking through the trees with a paddle.

Eventually I made it down the river to a quieter, slower place. There was a small rapid in front of me, and past this rapid was their SUP and paddle. I power-paddled down, and caught up to their SUP and paddle. I hooked my safety leash to their SUP and used their kayak paddle to paddle my way back upstream to a rocky area where I could wait for them to walk down. (it’s a good thing I’m super strong and can power-paddle so well!)

We Made It!

Before I saw them emerge from the trees, the five paddlers who had been waiting, came down. One of them said that it was good they were on the tour with me, and that I was able to help them. I responded telling them that I didn’t know these men, that I had just met them before we all decided to paddle the river together. Needless to say, it was a bit of a mess. Eventually the men met up with me and we were able to finish the river paddle.

When we were almost done with the paddle one of the men decided that he had had enough. I don’t know how but this man had cut up his hand pretty badly and was bleeding. We had almost reached the end, we could see the end point just in front of us. But instead of paddle to the end with a small dock and stairs, these men quit early and climbed up the hill through the brush to the road. I continued on to the end. They did have a first aid kit in their car and were able to clean and cover their wounds. I have a funny feeling that I had more fun paddling than they did.

It’s always nice to end up with a ridiculous story that has nothing to do with my diabetes! I don’t think those men will ever come back and paddle the river again, but I would like to come back and do it again. The next time I would make sure to bring at least one friend and another car.