Shae’s first paddle boarding experience a few years ago wasn’t the greatest.
She and her friend had gone down to Miami for a birthday celebration and went paddle boarding with a company down there. An instructor went with them, but it sounds like she was terrible. They paddle boarded out into the ocean, but the instructor basically left them to their own devices and paddled far away so that she wouldn’t have been close enough to help if anything happened.
Being out on the ocean for their first time paddle boarding wasn’t the easiest, so the experience wasn’t quite what they’d been hoping for. Despite that, Shae had been keen to try paddle boarding again, so while we were staying in Montrose, CO we drove to Elk Creek in the Curecanti National Recreation Area to rent paddle boards from Elk Creek Marina.
We’d brought our dog Truffles along with us for the day, but we weren’t sure how she’d feel about paddle boarding. The employee at Elk Creek Marina was very kind as he let us take her for a test run to make sure she’d be OK on the paddle board; if not, we could cancel without having to pay anything.
I don’t know if Truffles really knew what was going on, but she didn’t seem too nervous about the experience and so we decided to go ahead with renting the paddle boards. Our half-day rental ended up costing a total of $66.88 for two paddle boards.
Seeing as this was only Shae’s second time paddle boarding and it was my first experience, we decided to head out on our knees rather than standing. That gave us greater stability while we got more used to the experience.
The marina employee let us know that if we headed off to the left along the Gunnison River that the water would be calmer, but that we’d be paddling against the tide when returning to the marina later on. If we wanted an easier time heading back to the marina later that afternoon then we could head off to the right initially, but it was busier in that direction with people in their boats and so the water would be rougher.
Figuring that it’d be easier to paddle against the tide than trying to keep our balance with rough water, we headed off to the left. We stayed relatively close to the edge and after a while found a quiet inlet.
We each had a bag with us – one with our lunch and one with enough water for the day seeing as it was hot out. We left those on the shoreline and then took it in turns to try out paddle boarding while standing up.
Shae went out first and then it was my turn to try. It went well – I was a little wobbly at first, but I didn’t fall in and turned around without a problem.
Truffles followed both of us along the shoreline while we paddle boarded as if she was a lifeguard.
It was a warm day when we went paddle boarding on the Gunnison River, so we made a makeshift shelter for Truffles to stay cool when she wasn’t busy performing her lifeguard duties. She contributed to the effort by burrowing in the sand, covering our picnic blanket and the rest of our stuff!
After relaxing for a little while, we both went out paddle boarding again in the inlet. This time Truffles joined Shae on the board.
While paddling into the inlet, we’d seen a couple of unopened cans of beer floating in the river. I grabbed them to do my part for the environment which had the added benefit of letting me have a beer while relaxing on the shore later on (after rinsing off the can’s mouthpiece!).
After a couple of hours we decided to head back towards the marina with the intention of paddling beyond there so that we could return with the tide later in the afternoon.
The tide was already getting stronger and the water a little rougher, so trying to get beyond the marina to anywhere else worth checking out was going to be exhausting. Shae and I therefore decided to head the shorter distance to the other side of the river and moor up by the rocks to have a spot of lunch.
I had our lunch in the bag on my paddle board, so Shae came up with a genius solution to get her food.
We still had about 90 minutes left of our rentals, but some weather seemed to be rolling in and so we decided to make our way back to the marina rather than risk being out on the river in a thunderstorm.
We subsequently found out that we probably would’ve been OK because Curecanti National Recreation Area gets very little precipitation each year due to its location. Still, our arms were grateful that we didn’t continue paddle boarding for too much longer!
There’s a restaurant called Pappy’s Dock & Dine next to Elk Creek Marina, so we stopped there afterwards for a quick snack.
On our way back to Montrose we spotted a pull-off that led down to a beach area on the Gunnison River. Vehicles were allowed on the beach, but we didn’t drive all the way down to the shore as we weren’t sure how our car would deal with the sand.
We took a little wander along the beach, with Truffles having a great time chasing after her ball.
She then took a little dip in the water before we headed back to our hotel.
We had a wonderful afternoon paddle boarding at Curecanti National Recreation Area, so we’d definitely recommend it if you’re even in the area.
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