Not sure why it took this long, but I finally got back on the water. Yesterday was perfect. Breezy. Low humidity. Sunny. I went up to Stroud’s Run and circumnavigated Dow Lake. Despite the fact it was high noon, I saw a good bit of wildlife: an osprey, several blue herons, an otter and a […]
Tag Archives: kayak
Kayaking at Burr Oak Lake …
When I sold my kayak in D.C. I knew it was a mistake. One that I just fixed. I picked up a used 17-foot Current Designs Storm via Craig’s List, and despite my concerns that it might be more kayak than our Toyota Prius could handle, a Thule rack system made it so I can […]
Autumn paddle on Melton Hill Lake
I took advantage of a shimmering autumn afternoon yesterday to paddle Melton Hill Lake. I put in at the dam and headed upstream, pausing to paddle up Hope Creek. Fall colors still were clinging to a few trees along the shoreline, but for the most part the woods had receded into their winter attire. This […]
Paddling Glenville Lake
I’m not a golfer and I have little interest in spas. So when Lara and I drove over the Dragon and into northeast Georgia to meet her brother, sister-in-law and another couple for a weekend in the mountains, I strapped the kayak to the top of the truck intending to explore nearby lakes. After debating […]
Nuns with paddles
It’s so dark I don’t see the nun buoy until I’m a few feet away. How odd. The red, nun-shaped marker on Parks Bend conjures an instant flashback to angry Sister Mary Library chasing me and Doug Hamilton around book shelves with a paddle, hoping to put a hurtin’ on us after we’d glued alarm […]
Evening paddle
The weather has been great for the past week or so, prompting me to put the kayak in the water on Wednesday night and paddle over to Prater Flats. I was out for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a great wildlife night. Lots of blue heron, kingfishers, osprey and lunker fish roiling the shallow […]
Paddling Sinking Creek at sunrise
I woke up early today and drove down to Concord Cove Park since I still had my kayak on the truck from the Fontana paddles earlier this week. Concord Cove is about a 12 mile roundtrip paddle from the house, which pretty much is as far as I can go in one push, so putting […]
Wake-up call
As I paddle past groggy, grumpy herons, I see an osprey take flight at the entry to Duck Cove. I hope this means they’re nesting somewhere in the trees up on Saltpeter Bluff. It’s a perfect morning. Sunrise is shooing away the fog that settled on the water overnight, and I realize how long it’s […]
Paddles with manatees
As I paddled up Crystal Spring, I was trying to convince myself that even if I didn’t see any manatees, it still was worth the trip. The weather was perfect. The water was calm and clear. My kayak already was starting to feel like a part of me. That’s when a massive, gray form came […]
Return to Silver Springs
I heard them long before I spotted them. After scanning the shoreline for a few moments, I saw furtive movements. About 20 rhesus monkeys were along the shoreline. Their shrieking stopped when they saw me, but after they realized I was no threat and no food was forthcoming, the continued playing, squabbling and eating. I […]