May 30, 2011 Fish Creek

Today was our first outing of 2011 with "the Yakkers". If you haven't read my Blog before, this is a group of our kayaking friends that we take a large percentage of our kayak outings with. We try to vary the places we go to. Every year we discover some new places. Today we took them to Fish Creek. I don't think too many of them had been on Fish Creek before. We met at The Kayak Shack at Staffords Bridge. There were 14 of us in 13 kayaks. We launched and headed for the dam at the Schuylerville end of the Creek.

Some of the Yakkers

It was a nice paddle out. The carp were spawning. They are fun to watch as they splash around and make quite a racket. If you didn't know what it was, it could be a little creepy I guess. The first time I heard the carp on Round Lake I was a little nervous. You could only hear them in the weeds, but could not see them. On Fish Creek, they were right on the edges of the water. No doubt as to what was making all of the noise. You could see their fins. I hope this video will play for you. I took it on the paddle back in. It was hard to know where to point the camera as they were all over!

 

The next video is good at the beginning, but then I sort of drift around.

 

The paddle today took us about 3 hours. We went all the way to the dam. There is a "fun" part where you have to go through a No Wake zone. There is an older gentleman that is sort of the "Keeper of the Channel." I guess he lives there. We always see him when we paddle Fish Creek. He tells people where they can and can't paddle. Keep between the  red and green markers, stay between the buoys... He can be a nice guy if you let him. As he says, he's there to help. We've seen him butt heads with people though. They don't like being told what to do.

The Keeper of the Channel

He told us about a statue he built to protect us. He even gave our friend Doug a book to read about the water. We didn't get a chance to look at it. So here it is, and I guess we can thank him for a safe trip today.

The Statue

We had a hot paddle back to the launch. Glad we didn't start any later than we did. Lots of kayaks heading out in the heat. We are a early paddle group. Usually the conditions are more favorable early in the morning.
A few more pictures of our trip:

Cindy & Nancy

 

Megan, Tim & Gary

 

Tim

 

Nancy

May 25, 2011

On May 25th we took a mid week unplanned kayak trip to Round Lake.The day was beautiful and too perfect to pass up. Tim got everything loaded up and as soon as Megan got home, we took off for the lake. We met Tim's co-worker, Doug G. there. We paddled straight for the outlet that we love called the Anthony Kill. The water was as smooth as glass. We made good time and were across the lake in no time. We headed down the Anthony kill, zigging & zagging. The water was high enough to easily paddle over a beaver dam that stretches across one section.This was Megan's first time at Round Lake. I was in such a hurry to get there, I forgot my camera. There were some Canada Geese hanging out at the large beaver lodge.I was disappointed that we only saw one heron nest. Normally we see close to a dozen nests!
     We paddled down to the spot where we normally have to turn and head back because we can't get over the beaver dam. Today we were able to float right over it and head much farther than we've ever been. The fern along the shore were beautiful.  At one point we had to sort of "limbo" our way under a tree that had fallen across the creek. We went quite a ways but turned back due to the time. We didn't want to get caught out on the lake at sundown. The mosquitoes were getting a little thick too! I wish we had more time to continue.
On the paddle back we headed straight for the setting sun. Doug took these pictures.

Hopefully we can get back to listen to the carp spawning.

May 8, 2011

For Mother's Day Erin & Megan planned on surprising me with a Mother/Daughter kayak trip. Unfortunately Erin ended up in the ER last night with continuing sickness and was unable to kayak today. We're hoping to go next weekend instead. Tim Megan & I went to Stewart Pond. We headed towards the Conklinville Dam. The water wasn't as high as we thought it would be. It was a little windy and overcast. Not the sunny trip we had hoped for. When we made the turn towards the dam you could really hear the rush of the water as it came over the dam. So different from all of our other times there. We didn't paddle nearly as close as usual. We didn't want any issues with the current created by the water coming over the dam. First I will add a picture of the dam as we normally see it, and then I'll add the picture of the dam as it was today.

Unfortunately we didn't see any Bald Eagles today. We did see a bird soaring pretty high in the sky, but couldn't tell what kind of bird it was.

Megan enjoyed her 2nd trip out in her new boat. We have to get her a life vest so Tim can have his life vest back and stop wearing the old ghetto vest he's had to wear. Her birthday is coming up, so I'm sure she will get some of the things she needs.

On the news tonight we heard that the Conklinville Dam was having some issues with pressure today. Thank GOD that the Dam held up while we were in the water. I don't even want to think about what could have happened. The newsman talked about homes that would have washed away. What about kayakers???

May, 1, 2011 Lake Lonely

We got our start to the 2011 season in at Lake Lonely. Megan was anxious to get her new Eddyline Samba Kayak into the water. The spring rains have delayed our start. Last year we got into the water in April. We chose Lake Lonely so we could look for the Heron nests that Tim & Megan had seen last year when I was unable to kayak because of my torn meniscus.

We headed straight for the area where the nests are. We saw 6 or so nests and several Heron sitting in the trees nearby. We couldn't get as clear a view as we can get on Round Lake. As we continued along the lake, we saw what we believe we have identified as an Osprey. It flew over us and perched on a tree limb. Megan saw another one fly over us with a fish in its' talons. I believe that Osprey are referred to as Sea Hawks. This is the first one I've seen. It was neat.

At the north end of the lake we spotted a large Heron. It was sitting on a stump. We stayed very quiet as we approached and Megan was able to get some good photos before it flew away. It was fun getting as close as we did.

We decide to head to the outlet to the Kaydeross. We paddled into the creek and saw a bunch of new duck houses. As we checked them out Tim saw a large fish in the shallow water. I paddled up to take a look. Tim asked me if I could see it. I told him that all I could see was a log in the water. As I looked further I discovered that the "log" I was looking at was actually the fish. It was very long and somewhat skinny. Tim thinks it might have been a Northern Pike.

As we continued down the creek, it appeared that a lot of the tree limbs had been trimmed back since we were last in there. My favorite tree, "Alligator Log" as I had named it was among those trimmed back.

We turned back when we could feel the water from the Kaydeross pulling our boats. The large amount of rain this Spring has altered the normal flow of the water. It's a tough paddle when you get sucked into it. One spring Tim had to pull me out of some strong current down there.

When we got back up into calmer water we paddled through the woods. Its almost like you are in forbidden territory. The water normally isn't high enough to allow you to paddle through the trees, so when you can, you have to go for it.

We were out almost 2.5 hours. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon.