The West Hobolochitto Creek is a viable place to kayak, and Saturday I was able to prove that fact to some friends.

But that process took months because when I first pitched the idea, one participant must have thought I was trying to get him to float down nothing more than a ditch.

But about 15 minutes into the trip from Long Bridge on Beech Street to the Burnt Bridge Road boat launch, the most reticent of the participants remarked at how wide and deep the creek really is, in spots at least.

Admittedly, I was mistaken about two aspects of our trip.

Before we headed out Saturday morning, I issued two warnings; the trip would take four to five hours and there would be at least one or two spots where we would have to either drag our small watercraft over logs, or drag them through the woods.

Neither claim was true, mostly because the water level was a bit higher than normal at that time, about seven feet according to the reading on the National Weather Service’s website.

Secondly, since the water was a bit higher than expected, it was moving pretty swiftly, cutting the trip to about 2 hours.

But my assertion that the Boley Creek is a viable place to kayak or canoe was spot on.

Previously, we had taken a road trip of 30 minutes to an hour to get to a place to paddle.

Fortunately for me, I knew of the creek’s kayak viability from covering the local organization, Friends of Boley. My trip with them years prior did involve a couple of places where we had to pull the kayaks out of the water due to log jams.

But efforts since that time by the volunteer organization have not only made the creek navigable, but also less littered.

It is time for another cleanup however. During the trip I noticed a couple of coolers and a trash pile or two along the banks.

Maybe I can convince my friends to participate during the next cleanup.