June 26, 2011 Lake Algonquin

     It's been several weeks since we've been kayaking. On June 11th our daughter Erin got married. On June 13th we traveled to Washington state for a week. We're back now and ready to get some kayak trips in. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!
     We met the Yakkers and headed to Lake Algonquin in Wells, NY. Wells is right before you get to the town of Speculator. We parked at the beach and launched our kayaks. The water was nice and calm, so no real waves. Just the water we were looking for!

Gary & Tim

Nance & Tim

Lake Algonquin is a small lake. It has quite a few houses on it though. They vary quite a bit in size. The view is beautiful. Mountains in the distance make a wonderful back drop.

On our way around the main section of the Lake, there were several Canada Geese and babies. They were so adorable. They were still pretty fuzzy.

These baby geese were pretty large.

Thes babies were quite a bit smaller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back towards the beach area. We paddled under the new bridge and waited for everyone to get back together. We surprised Megan and sang Happy Birthday to her. Can't ignore her birthday (she turned 23)

The birthday girl

We paddled farther north. There were fewer houses in this section. The left side was natural with a large beaver lodge in the grass.  No sign of any beavers, though. It was much narrower in this section. This would be a nice area to have a house. Pretty quiet back there and few houses. We actually saw one that we might put an offer on. We're thinking ahead to retirement. This could be it! What do you think??

A little slice of paradise!

 

It even comes with a picnic table! We would have to improve the launch area though. It has a front AND a back door. Have to keep safety in mind.

     This was a very nice paddle. It was a shorter than many of the paddles we do, but sometimes that is nice. We loaded up our cars and headed home to get ready to celebrate Megan's birthday. It was grilled pizza night, by request. We did the prep... Megan did the grilling!

June 5, 2011 Lake Abanakee

We met Gary & Sharon this morning for a trip to Lake Abanakee. None of us had been there before. It is near Indian Lake. We saw this motorcycle at Stewart's in Indian Lake. Check out the mini car/trailer. It was obviously heading the Americade in Lake George.

Motorcycle with mini car in tow

Sharon wearing her hat & netting

Tim, Megan, Gary, Sharon & I started to unpack    
our gear. I looked up to see Gary & Sharon with
nets over their hats. I was thinking, "Really, nets??"
But by the time I walked to the water with my first
load of gear, I wished that I had a net too.
The Black Flies were horrible!

                         

The morning was cooler than I had expected. We didn't wear long pants, so Megan & I decided to paddle with a beach towel over our legs. It was certainly cool enough for our long sleeves. Megan decided to start bringing her Ranger doll, kind of like "Flat Stanley." She will be perched on Megan's kayak and have her picture taken at each outing. It was kind of fun seeing "Sue" perched on the kayak.

Ranger Sue comes along

Megan & Sue

We came across several areas that had a of of stumps. Many were above water, but Tim got stuck on one like a sandbar. He was able to wiggle off it in time to give us a heads up.

Stumps stick up in the water

Nest in the top of a tree

 We paddled under a bridge and saw a large bird on a power pole and another flying around it with a snake (we think) hanging from its' beak. It flew around with that snake for a while, before we lost sight of it. We did spot the nest on a platform an the top of another power pole. We think the bird may have been an Osprey, but didn't get a close enough look.

Ranger Sue

Our paddle was about 2-3 hours today.
There was enough breeze to keep the black flies away on the water. We saw a loon. They're awesome. I love how they dive under water and come up far from where they submerged.  No picture of the loon, though.We had the lake to ourselves until the very end of the trip.

Nance

 

Tim & Megan (and Sue)

I would definitely go back and paddle here again. It would make a nice trip in the Fall.