Return of Eddie Spedder

Day 5 (7/6/11)

Day five is actually a composite of four and five together. We were able to go up the river a Mauthe both days. The first day we were again reminded how much we dislike the Eddie Spedders of the world. We were on our way over to the river when all of a sudden out of nowhere this T.S. comes over and starts putting on a clinic for us. He is spinning and paddling backwards and basically making a nuisance of himself. At that point we should have changed our course and he may have never noticed the opening into the river. Once he saw where we were heading he shot ahead and on up the river. As you can well imagine any wildlife was soon cowering well away from the river. It was a beautiful day though and as anticipated it didn’t take long before Eddie had grown bored and came shooting back the other direction leaving the rest of the river unmolested. There was another kayaker who also must have seen us go into the channel and followed us up the river but to his credit he never got very close and seemed to enjoy the slow leisurely pace we set. When we got to the turnaround point he drifted off before I had a chance to thank him for his patience. Next time we will have to be more careful about sneaking into the river.

The Day After

Day 4 (7/5/11)

Cozmik Debris

We had survived the Fourth of July weekend and for the most part had a good time. We decided that by now though the crowds should have cleared out from our favorite state park campground at Mauthe Lake so we packed up the Yak hauler with all the essentials and headed for the hills, moraines actually. As expected the crowds were gone and we were even able to get the tepee for a second year in a row. The girl at the office said that they had been turning people away the day before and even the beach had reached its capacity. What a difference a day can bring. Late in the day we had a slight rain which chased away the remaining beach people. It was eerie walking amongst the remnants of the weekend, like some apocalyptic movie where the people had just disappeared. It was also slightly appalling at what was left behind. It is perhaps a sad commentary on our affluent society that so much stuff is just left behind.

Hope for Tomorrow!

Yak Cam

Day 3 (6/29/11)

Yak Cam

Again we decided to get an early start and go to Hingham this time. It was a beautiful day and I was excited about trying my new “Yak cam”. I had purchased a bendable tripod that I could mount on the rod holder of my console. It worked perfectly. It was right in front of me so that I could easily operate it and stable enough to get very little wobble. If I was going to fish I would have to come up with another idea. As usual we worked our way up through the flowage to get to the river where the fun really begins. Once you make the turn away from the last house on the lake and entered the river a sense of peace flows over you. More than any other place we go to Hingham really emphasizes the contrast between populated and non-populated areas. You are consumed with watching the wildlife and nature around you. We hadn’t gone far when we came across a beaver with a mouth full of sticks. I tried to get some video of it but as soon as I got close it disappeared under the surface. Around the next corner Eileen kicked up a deer but again wasn’t fast enough to get a photo. She said it was starting to get antlers. It must have run up the river a ways because it sure made a lot of noise. It was hard to turn around and come home but to go on would have taken some major portaging. So we worked our way back down river to civilization.

Turn Around

Working our way to the River

First Cairn

I love this Photo

Twin Cairn

Cairn

Bridge at the end of the line.

Gerber

Day 2 (6/26/11)

Cairn building

Our plan was to get up early and head out to Gerber Lake before the weekend crowds started moving in. Well, it was early for us and we were the first boats out on the lake. To be honest at noon there was still only two other boats on the lake. The water was amazingly clear which made fishing sort of frustrating as I watched the largest bass I have ever seen in the wild swim past without even a second glance at my bait. As Eileen said “they probably don’t get that large by being stupid”. I covered most of the lake and couldn’t scare up any fish although we saw lots of them. We visited all the usual haunts, checked out the fallen wood sculptures, went up the little river and even built a cairn. I don’t think you could have gotten much better weather for kayaking. I had purchased a cheap little waterproof video camera so we spent a little time playing around with that. Unfortunately there was little in the way of wildlife to film. On our way back to the dock, Eileen came across a wren which had built a nest in a hollow log. It put up such a fuss though we decided to leave it in peace.

Up the River

In the Strait



Chillaxing



Cairn



Iris




Wren House



Maiden Voyage

Baby Blue Jay

Three Baby Blue Jays

 Day 1 (6/17/11)

Year three is off to a slow start. This is actually the first time that I have blogged on any of my blogs since Walker stole the music. I know it is time to get on with my life but it is hard. It seems like much of my thought and energy has been drained by the current political situation. It is not like we have not been doing anything. We have actually spent a lot of time working on the yard and general maintenance. We had a great spring for birds and had a large group of Orioles and Indigo buntings that stayed for a couple of weeks. We had a family of Orchard Orioles which I had never seen before so that was fun. There are two groups of baby robins running around the yard and a nest of baby blue jays in the cedar in back. Today we finally headed out to Waldo for our maiden voyage of the year. It was a beautiful day. As usual we quickly made our way up through the flowage, slowing only to stalk a blue heron that was feeding along the bank. Unfortunately, the dragon driftwood had lost its jaw and looked far less intimidating. Otherwise we found everything much as we remembered it. We went up past the bridge that is usually about as far as we can go without some major pruning. I was sad to see somebody had thrown small air conditioner over the bridge. Regrettably, as Eileen and I have often discussed, when you start charging to dispose of small appliances some people will resort to unscrupulous disposal methods. We stopped at the bridge to build a cairn, our first of the season. It is kind of amazing that we are half way through June and I just made the first build of the year. Perhaps the rest of the summer will be better.

Blue Heron

The Bridge

Cairn

Cedar Grove

Sheboygan Marsh

Day 27 (10/16/10)

The Sheboygan Marsh

Today we went to the Sheboygan Marsh for a change of pace. We had been hearing about it since we first got our kayaks. After spending some time on the internet gathering maps we were off to the marsh. When we left home there was very little wind but as we were climbing the observation tower at the marsh we noticed that the wind had definitely picked up. One of the interesting things about the marsh is that it has hundreds of floating cattail bogs and because of the wind they were all parking themselves right in the boat docking area. We found a unique route out through the islands and made our way into what we were told was the main ditch. We chose to not take the channel down to the main lake since the wind was blowing directly from that direction. We skirted the inner edge of the ditch on the way out to avoid the wind as much as possible. It was still pretty bad especially since all the cattails were shedding their cotton and it was as thick as snow at times. Because of the wind we had a somewhat abbreviated visit but we can’t wait to go back next summer. What the area lacks in scenery (the part we were at was all lined with cattails) it makes up for in hidden inlets which are fun to explore. We were told that people do get lost in the march because it is hard to see landmarks so we decided before next summer to laminate a map that we can chart our course as we go. The marsh will definitely warrant a closer look next summer when it is not so windy.

The Tower

Eileen in a Lagoon

Floating Bogs

Summer in Fall

Day 26 (10/9/10)

When it is the second weekend in Oct and approaching eighty degrees you have no choice but to drop everything and go enjoy it. We had wanted to get back to Mauthe Lake all fall so we packed a lunch and our Kayaks and headed west. We made it there by 11:00 and headed straight for the river. We wanted get up river before to many other people got there to scare off the wildlife. Eileen spent quite a while photographing a Blue heron that seemed to like her stirring up the bait fish. The trip up river was excellent. It was so peaceful that you would find yourself closing your eyes and just listening to the sounds. At one point a slight gust of wind blew down some dry leaves and they were amazingly loud as they rattled down through the branches. After coming back down out of the river we stopped and ate our lunch. I did a little fishing and then decided to do some hiking. We had always wanted to hike the trail around the lake and since the colors were much better in the higher areas we went for it. It was one of those days where no matter what you did was wonderful. The pictures speak for themselves.

Heading up river