geese

Back to Sunday’s Kayaking

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With two of my kayaks loaded on the roof of the car, a friend and I headed over to the “Celebration of Life” for another friend, and fellow kayaker. Following the ceremony, food, and visiting, we went to the next lake south in a chain of lakes down the center of Vermont, Lake Rescue. It was hot. It was a mid-summer afternoon. It was a Sunday! It was packed. There were lots of power boats, water skiers and tubers, pontoon boats, paddle boats, kayaks – everyone at their lake house, enjoying water sports. Oh, well – we wanted the exercise, and it felt good to get wet.

Loon nesting platform – and loon that won’t fit on it!

Pretty big boat house for a couple of canoes – at least rain won’t fill them with water!
Not sure what he’s doing… A sculpture on shore
I sure wouldn’t want to go down to the dock – and realize I’d forgotten something!

Roadtrek Roadtrip, #7: Moving North

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Thursday, 9/16: Time to move on – after breakfast (Julie has discovered microwave scrambled eggs, and Genne got to lick out what remained.) The geese watched me load up and move out.

My destination wasn’t far, as roadtrips go – the area on the north side of Baltimore. My cousin is in the Mt. Washington neighborhood, and aunt in Towson. Between them, in Mt. Washington, is this beautifully carved guardian:

Kayaking Amherst Lake, Plymouth, Vermont

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Saturday, June 12: The object of the outing today was to survey the northern part of Amherst Lake for invasive plants, especially flowering rush. I met with a couple of others, although I was the only one with a boat; Kelly leads the Black River Action Team, a neighbor showed up, and there was a drone pilot who will be taking aerial photographs of the shoreline, monitoring the spread of plants and depth of water. The dam holding this lake is in bad shape, and there is talk about taking it out altogether; they are working to ensure that any newly exposed land is planted and stable, and trying to have input, as this lake is along what becomes the Black River (eventually flowing into the Connecticut River). I found no flowering rush, but had a pleasant paddle through the waterlilies,

upstream and as far as I could go,

and out and around past the geese.

The lake has been drained by a few feet to take pressure off the dam, and I was unable to go as far upriver as I have in the past – and I’m glad I don’t draw a lot of water! It certainly was a beautiful day to be out.

Back to Paddle on the Connecticut River

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Saturday, November 7: Another t-shirt day! This time I paddled north a few miles, and back – I’d not done that this year. A couple of my friends were on the water at the same time, but not quite the same place.

On my way south again, I heard a loon call – twice I turned the kayak to look back to where the call was coming from, but didn’t see a loon. But the view was nice!

Then back, loaded the kayak, and headed home. I turned around to get a photo of these turkeys, gleaning in the cornfield.