As the temperature climbed into the ’70s and the sun streamed into the house yesterday, I kept looking down at the dock. At about 3 o’clock I gave up, went down and launched the kayak.
I headed downstream on Loudon to daymark 606.1, which put me within sight of the Highway 95 bridge near Loudon Marina in Lenoir City. I’m hoping to get there once the water warms up, but yesterday I settled for an 8-9 mile roundtrip paddle punctuated by wailing gulls and indignant herons. Not to mention the occasional buzzing of bass boats. When I finally do attempt Lenoir City, it will be almost twice as far. I’ve paddled only a few times this year, so yesterday was about perfect. I can still lift my arms this morning but I definitely feel tight … in a good way.
This photo was taken as I returned to Duck Cove. Our dock is on the left, and the barge and tug on the right are building a dock. From our porch, they look pretty massive and swallow up the cove. It caused Sydney the Angry Cockatoo no end of consternation when the tug plowed into the cove on Sunday and grounded the barge on the shore.