August 21, 2011 Rollins Pond

We started our camping trip to Rollins Pond. We arrived on Saturday August 20th. Tim and I were delayed a few hours due to an unexpected trip to the Vet. Otis the cat has a bad limp and was given a shot for inflamation.
 
When we arrived at our campsite, everyone else was there and about 90% set up. They even had our tent set up! What a nice surprise. Megan went ahead of us and met Doug & Cindy and Gary & Sharon. They went out for breakfast before heading to Rollins Pond. Our sites are pretty nice. They are right next to each other and are very easy to get together for meals, etc.

Megan & Sue 

Sunday morning we woke up to a thunderstorm.We had breakfast and decided to go ahead and go kayaking. The lightning had stopped, but we still had some rumbles of thunder.The guys had mapped out our trip for the day. It included portaging our boats across several land areas to paddle a circle that would bring us right back to our campsites.

Rollins Pond to Floodwood Pond to Whey Pond and back To Rollins Pond

Manipulating the rocks

We started out at our beach and headed north. We brought rain gear with us because we were pretty certain that we would get caught in the rain.The water was pretty calm for a potentially rainy day. We paddled into a narrow creek like area. The water was pretty shallow here. Cindy got out of her boat and pulled it through. The rest of us paddled through the best we could, using our hands to push off the rocks in the shallow areas to get through. It worked pretty well. I hate having to get out because the water is too shallow.

We paddled to a section that had some rocks to sort of weave through. It was pretty through there. We paddled under a bridge next. By this time the rain had started and we put our raincoats on.

Raindrops on my kayak

 We headed to the shore to the portage path to Whey Pond. This was the first Portage that we had to do. We put our boats on our wheels and carefully pulled them along the path. There were a lot of exposed roots to navigate over. At one point the roots were big enough to knock my wheels out from under my kayak. Tim re-positioned them and off we went.

Portage to Whey Pond

 Throughout our trip, we had a little fun with the Loons. Megan had found a Loon call on her cell phone. Whenever we saw Loons on the water, she turned it on. It was really funny to watch the Loons respond to the calls on the phone. At first they would look around, and then they would finally answer back. It was if they were saying, "Where are you? I can't find you!"

Loons- looking for Megan's "phone loon"

As we paddled across Whey Pond, Megan & I were busy with the Loons and missed a bald eagle flying towards us. Tim called us and showed us where it landed. It was at the top of a tree. It was magnificent. I just can't get enough of them. It stayed at the top of the tree and just looked out over the water. Perhaps it was looking for some fish for dinner. We paddled away and before too long we noticed that the eagle was gone.

Beautiful Bald Eagle

We had one more carry to get back into Rollins Pond. This one was much shorter & easier. Tim & Megan took Tims kayak across and then came back over to get Megan's and mine It ended up that Doug took the front end of Megans boat while Tim took the back of her boat and the front of my boat and Megan took the back of my boat.It was a regular parade.

We put the boats back in to Rollins Pond near Site # 1 and paddled to our sites (221-223). It was a really nice paddle. We hit a few submerged logs and pushed our way through a few shallow spots, but it didn't rain too hard to ruin the trip!

Our boats stacked on the beach