The kids worked on leather craft this morning:

After completing homeschool, we left a bike near a boat ramp on the Salt River, then drove upstream a couple miles.  The idea was that we would kayak down, and then I would ride the bike to the start and pick up the SUV.

Unfortunately, the Salt River turned out to be pretty low this time of year, so we spent most of our time dragging the kayaks through the shallow parts of the river.  There were a few deep (more than 6 inches of water) parts:

In some shallow areas, a thick mat of biomass covered the surface of the water:

Even with the difficulties, it was neat to paddle by Saguaro cacti:

At the shallow parts, Trish and I would pull our boats through the shallows as well as the children’s boats with the kids still in them, as the kids were wearing shoes that couldn’t get wet.  It was slow and exhausting, and because the river was so low we had to carry all four kayaks about a quarter mile to the road at the end.  I ended up riding the bike back to the SUV in rapidly darkening twilight, and by the time we got the kayaks back onto the SUV it was cold and dark out.  Trish then drove behind me as I rode my bike back to the RV.

This was the worst kayak trip we’ve ever done, but hopefully it’s something we can someday laugh about.