Perpetual Ruminations

Busted

Years back when my wife and I first began kayaking, we went out every chance we could, often at lakes close to home. One very hot day we went to a Lake Pelican and began paddling around the lake. This was in eastern South Dakota with few trees and a lot of open land, so there was little shade.

We reached the opposite side from where we had started and found a small, sandy, and shallow bay that was isolated and had a lot of trees. It was a great place to stop for a break. We sat on shore and drank some water, snacked on some protein bars we had brought with, and enjoyed the shade.

Despite the shade, it was still hot. The water looked very inviting so we rolled our pants up and waded out; it felt wonderful. There wasn't anyone around on land or on the lake so we decided to strip down and go skinny dipping. We waded out about twenty feet or more before we could dive into the refreshing water. We splashed around and cooled ourselves for a few minutes then headed back to shore.

We hadn't brought a towel, so we sat on our shirts and let the warm air dry us before getting dressed and heading back out in the kayaks. We had just reached the area where the water was deep enough to dive when we heard muffled voices from behind us. "We got out of there just in time." I said to my wife.

She replied, "Yes, we did." We continued on our way not thinking anything about it. Shortly after rounding the bed of the bay, we saw we were alongside Lake Pelican State Park. We went ashore to investigate the park; we had never visited it and were curious if it would provide us a place close to home for camping.

We left the kayaks on shore by a beach and fishing area, then walked up the road. We came to a trail that went right and followed back to the bay where we had just been swimming. The trail ended at a small, wooden, overlook tower were we met two park workers who had just finished clearing some brush and cleaning up the area. As they walked past us one asked,  "Hows the water? Did you enjoy your swim?"