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| Sand Hill Crane |
I hope 2012 goes better than 2011 as far as Kayaking goes.
Last year I only blogged eight times. I think that we may have gone out a
couple more times but either nothing all that exciting happened or I just didn’t
blog about it. This year seems to be off to a better start already. We really
should have been out earlier since we had eighty degree temperatures in March
but with school and everything else that goes on in the spring we had to wait
until today. Because of Memorial Day weekend we decided to stay away from the
more popular places and go to Waldo. When we left our house there was a slight
breeze and beautiful temperatures. Perhaps because of the wind direction and
lake layout when we arrived at Waldo the wind was quite strong. We are always a
little concerned when the wind is at our back because we know that eventually
we will have to return. We set out with much anticipation. As Waldo sometimes is,
it was somewhat smelly. The water was high and muddy from the recent rains but
we managed to spot some carp throughout the flowage. We soon encountered another
problem with the high winds; it was hard to drift slowly to sneak up on
wildlife. Soon after entering the river Eileen spotted the head of a sand hill
crane bobbing through the tall grass on the bank. We tried to slow down to
watch it and get some pictures but because of the wind it was impossible to
slow down much less stay in one place so it took off and we only got a couple
of fleeting shots of it. It was soon evident that the wind was not the only
issue we were going to have to contend with. As I said before the recent rains
had swollen the river and the slow easy current that we usually had to contend
with had increased in speed and volume. Under other circumstances the fast
current would have been fun but when you are hoping to drift up on some photo
opportunities it can be trying. As we anticipated when we got back to the
flowage our speed decreased considerably when we had to make our way back
against the wind. We soon found that if you weren’t going forward you were
going back. If you stop paddling to take a picture you would start blowing back
and sideways before you got your picture taken. That said it was a beautiful
May day. We can’t wait to get back out.
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| Eileen heading out |
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| Up The River |
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| Turtles |
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| Coming Back Down |
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| Nice Cedar |
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| Worlds in Worlds |
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