Float on: Local kayakers enjoy the great outdoors, peace and quiet, and adventure

Ken Keller first tried kayaking while living in Colorado.

"I had ridden my bicycle up Boulder Creek and I was watching the kayakers come down," he says. "I just decided I'd like to try it out."

The Cape Girardeau resident and lifelong outdoor recreation enthusiast has been kayaking ever since.

"I try to go two or three times a week," he says.

Now, Sunday mornings at 10 o'clock, he and a handful of other local outdoorsy types meet downtown and troop out in search of kayakable waters, which Keller says aren't difficult to find.

"Every water is kayakable," he jokes, adding more seriously that "there are a million places around here."

His friend Don Greenwood says newcomers are welcome. It's all about recreation, after all. A beautiful way to relax.

"Anybody is welcome," he says. "Just come out and meet us Sunday morning. We always have extra boats."

Keller says he doesn't understand how anyone could stay indoors with so much natural beauty in the area. Of course, he also is the type of person whose house is littered with bikes and other outdoor equipment. He says he's even got one bike that "lives" in Colorado, where he visits monthly.

"I've always been into water sports, but I also bike and run," he says. He's also a musician, playing bass for a Perryville, Missouri-based classic rock squad called The Tungsten Groove.

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

"That's how I write music, too," he says. "You get out and hear the traffic, and the wind and the birds, and there's your song."

The natural beauty of the area is at the least, impressive, and at most, truly awe-inspiring. There's something otherworldly about seeing the thin, plastic boats skimming slowly between the cypress trees that sprout straight out of the water. Some are hundreds of years old.

"There are so many things within 15 minutes of downtown," Keller says.

His favorite location is Horseshoe Lake in Illinois, but he doesn't always leave Cape to hit the water. Sometimes he and others just shove off into the mighty Mississip'.

"At first we'd put in upstream and roll down, but then you start thinking about how the Indians traded back in the day," he says. "You can use the back-tows to sort of pull you up the river."

But he warns that the back-tows aren't all fun and games.

"I saw that whirlpool that everybody talks about in Cape Rock, and it opened up and swallowed me once," he says. "But since I was with others, it turned out OK."

He explains that there's really no way to avoid going in the drink every now and then.

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

"Every time you really feel like you've got it under control, something surprises you, but everything's like that," he says. "I once got hit by a car in the crosswalk on Broadway. You never know. Yeah, you're gonna tip, but that's part of it."

He says for a modest investment, a person could enjoy the outdoors and get healthier.

"I can't understand why nobody else is doing this," he says. "For $250, you can have a lifetime of free kayaking."

And the sense of tranquility waiting on the water is unbeatable.

"Getting outside is the key to life," he says. "You just float, there's your meditation."