In Anchorage my parents have three recreational kayaks so Alex and I took our 13 year old cousin on Campbell Creek and Campbell lake (one of the only anchorage paddles).

 

Our cousin is from California so he’s not afraid of the water. Which is good because he got temporarily stuck a few times on the creek, like in the branches above, but quickly learned basic steering.

 

Alex and I sandwiched him between us, the front person watching out for moose and bear and fishing lines and finding a path in the shallow water, and the back person making sure we could help him if he couldn’t make it upstream. We saw two fishermen, a swimming muskrat, a large beaver dam, and a lot of ducks.

It was a lot of fun to paddle up and down part of the creek for a couple hours, still with plenty of light despite the paddle taking place in the evening.

It was good cousin bonding time.

When we couldn’t paddle up any further (it was too swift and too shallow with our guest) we had a fun ride back down the creek to the lake. 

 

My favorite parts were playing on the creek and checking out the amazing houses on Campbell Lake, including all their boats, float planes, and helicopters.

Our cousin’s favorite part was getting a closer look at a couple families of ducks.