Sunday, August 23, 2009

Kayaking Rainbow Lake

One of the highlights of our annual vacation to Wakanda is kayaking on Rainbow Lake . There are several routes to take on the lake.

At the southern end there's a bog where I've seen ducks, geese and heron. I headed that direction one afternoon. I did see ducks and geese but mostly just water and flora.
marsh boathouse
I love the reflections of this boathouse on the water.

in the log
The circle of life.

fallen log2
Log becomes home to new growth.

fallen log
I love the gracefullness of the limbs.

marsh
Tree Reflection.

Taking a swing around the end of the esker opens up another stretch of water, heading either to the stretch known as the Flow or through the Clear Pond loop. My brother, nephew and I did the Clear Pond loop one afternoon. As we have many other times, my nephew N sat at the front of my cockpit (I've got a very open cockpit on my boat).

N riding
N looking back at me.

This was not the only kayaking N did this year. He's finally big enough to handle a boat on his own, so one afternoon he had a paddling lesson. We got him into a boat, I took hold of the line on front and swam nearby while he practiced his paddling skills.

N paddle1
Note the intensity on his face.

N paddle3
Concentrating on proper technique.


Once we were comfortable that he wasn't going to flip his boat or throw the paddle, we hooked his line to the back of my boat and headed off on a short trip from the afternoon beach to Boot Bay and back. N did very well and made it just over 2/3rds of the way before he got tired, after which I towed him the rest of the way.
N paddle2
Early on during the trip.

Stay tuned for more about kayaking on Rainbow Lake. (I'm tired and this post is long enough.)

1 comment:

p said...

nice nature shots chelle...soothing and beautiful.