Thematic Photographic 83 - What I Did on Vacation

Kayaking on Rainbow Lake, August 2010

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Kayaking Rainbow Lake, Part 3

In normal years we have to be out of our vacation cabin by 10am on Saturday, so that our hosts can get it cleaned and ready for the next renters. This was, however, not a normal year. With the economy struggling the vacation rental market is depressed, and Owl cabin (our favorite home away from home) was not rented for the week after our vacation. After trying to convince us to stay (oh how I wanted to!) Soozie and Noel encouraged us to take our time on Saturday. (This turned out to ve a very good thing when the water pump quit working Saturday morning. Noel did get it fixed quickly, though.)

This meant that there was time for one more kayak trip before we left. One of my favorite paddles on Rainbow Lake is that back into the Flow. So that was the choice for my last paddle.

The paddle starts by heading south around the tip of the esker. As I started out that morning I realized that I had never done this in the morning before.


The view looking north from the other side of the esker.


I've haven't seen a lot of turtles in the Adirondacks. That morning I saw 10, including this one.


This heron was alternately grooming and posing, while enjoying the morning sun.


Looking toward the Flow. At this point I had seen only one other boat.


As I head further into the Flow the lilies thicken. In spots this makes the paddle more challenging, since it requires maneuvering around the patches of lillies, and other water plants which thrive here because the water is so calm.


The calm water and the number of fallen trees offer lots of awsome reflections.


Evidence of the calm morning - the water was smooth as glass.


I've seen beavers in this section of the Flow before, but this morning I only saw reflections.


This stretch of the lake ends at this beaver dam. I was able to get close because of this summer's high water levels.


I love the colors of this bright grass.


More fallen tree reflections.


Back at Owl Dock and the end of our vacation.

It was a lovely paddle.

Kayaking Rainbow Lake, Part 2

According to the real estate listings Rainbow Lake offers either 12 or 15 miles of interconnected waterways to explore. From our spot of the southern end of Rainbow Lake the longest paddle heads north on Rainbow Lake, through the Rainbow Narrows and Kushaqua Narrows and across Lake Kushaqua to the dam. Two years ago I made it as far as the Buck Pond Campground but not into Lake Kushaqua itself.

This year I decided to take an afternoon and head north toward the dam again. Because I hadn't done a lot of kayaking this year (the kayak hadn't been in the water until we got to Rainbow Lake) I wasn't sure how far I'd make it. I loaded up the boat with 2 bottles of water, and snacks and headed out. Spurred on by Soozie, one of our hosts, who mentioned the record time to the dam and back, I decided to see how far I could get. Start time was approximately 1:50pm.

The lake wasn't as calm as I would have liked - stirred up by a light breeze and a few power boats - but was not a it's worst. (I've paddled the length of Rainbow Lake when it had 2 foot waves as a storm blew in - not fun.) Good time was made to the bridge separating Rainbow Lake from Rainbow Narrows. Along the way I stopped to admire the flamingos in one yard.


Note the skeleton flamingos (they're the black ones).

Finally, the bridge comes into view, marking the end of the first segment of the journey. Time check 2:30pm.

This bridge separates Rainbow Lake from Rainbow Narrows.

The water beyond the bridge was much calmer - probably because the narrowness prevents power boats from going very fast.

There are a lot of trees down along the shore. This particular tree sticks out into the channel as the lake widens. To help prevent accidents someone has helpfully added a reflector. This amuses me everytime I see it.

From here you pass a small bog, then the rope swing - known to everyone on the lake. Then under a couple of bridges. I was delayed at the second bridge, which is quite narrow, by four paddlers from the other direction.

After the second (third on the trip) bridge the water widens into the Kushaqua Narrows.


This windswept tree sits on a small island near the Buck Pond Campground. On my previous trip, I circled around this island before heading back. 3:06pm

I made a brief stop at an empty campsite (to the right of the small island) to stretch my legs before heading toward the dam. After winding my way around the next point the water opened up into Lake Kushaqua.


If I'm reading the map correctly this is Little Haystack mountain, which rises on the East side of the lake.

Kushaqua is a wide open lake. I saw a loon as I was headed toward the dam. The closer to the dam I got the rougher the water was. This is not entirely unexpected any time you are near a dam, waterfall or the like there is going to be at the least a more apparent current. The water from Rainbow Lake and Lake Kushaqua empties over the dam - it's used to control water level - and given all the wet this summer there was a significant amount of water heading over the dam.

I ventured up to the rocks at the right of the picture but didn't feel comfortable getting any closer to the dam. 3:38pm

As I headed back across Kushaqua the waves seemed to pick up strength. This may have been an actual change, or the fact that I was now heading into the wind and against the current. I paddled as close to the shore as I felt comfortable doing, as waves broke across the front of the kayak. This was not a fun part of the trip. It was hard paddling. I was very happy to get back to the entrance in the Kushaqua Narrows, and have the opportunity to take a breather.

I made another stop at the empty campsite to rest, and have my snack. I was very quickly joined by a dozen ducks - clear sign that too many people have been feeding them!


One of the hopeful ducks. I did not feed them.

After a 10 minute break I headed back to Owl Cabin.


The first of the two bridges between the Kushaqua Narrows and the Rainbow Narrows. 4:40pm

On the way back I came upon our hosts, Noel and Soozie, Laka (their dog) and a friend finishing up on the rope swing. I declined the tow they offered and headed home.


This loon kept me company as I headed down Rainbow Lake, but refused to move so that it wasn't backlit.


Finally back at our dock - and yes this picture is crooked. 6:00pm
I could have straightened it, but the crookedness is evidence of how truly tired I was.

Total trip time 4 hours and 10 minutes - or so.

It was a fun trip. If we get a nice calm day next year I may have to try the trip again to see if I can lower the total time.

(The times listed are the time stamps from the photos.)

Stay tuned for Part 3.

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.

I love the reflections of this boathouse on the water.


The circle of life.


Log becomes home to new growth.


I love the gracefullness of the limbs.


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 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.


Note the intensity on his face.


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.

Early on during the trip.

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

Kayaking with RT

As most of my friends and family know I love kayaking. I like nothing better than spending hours on the water. And given the chance I will extol the joys of kayaking to anyone who will listen. My college roommate, and good friend, RT has heard much about my kayak trips and more than a year ago we started talking about getting her out on the water. She was having shoulder issues earlier this summer, but they have improved and our schedules finally aligned (despite her partner's broken arm) so this morning instead of heading out to Meeting, I picked RT up and we headed off for a kayak adventure.

For this first trip, we chose to launch from Charles River Canoe & Kayak in Newton. This site offers rentals and is on a gentle portion of the river. CRCK also has rental sites on Lake Cochituate in Natick and on the Charles in Boston. I don't recommend large lakes for a first kayaking experience because of wind induced waves and power boats, and the Charles in Boston tends to have quite a few power boats as well. The stretch of the river in Newton and Waltham is narrow enough to avoid the waves of open lakes and doesn't tend to have many power boats, so it met all the criteria for RT's first kayak paddle. We headed out early to avoid the inevitable crowds on this beautiful, sunny Sunday.

After making sure that RT was being taken care of by the rental staff I headed to the parking/duck feeding/launch area on the opposite shore. Once on the river it took me a couple minutes to find RT. I'd expected her to be hovering on or near the dock, but she had ventured out further to watch a blue heron having breakfast. I was entertained to discover that the rental staff had given her a boat that matched her hat.

We headed downriver, which is not my usual choice when doing a loop. Heading upriver first takes you under a number of roads (rt 30, on ramps for the turnpike and 128, the turnpike, and 128) so it takes a while to get to a section where you aren't listening to constant road noise. By heading downriver first we escaped the road noise fairly quickly, and the current on this stretch of the river is fairly minimal. Adding to that this morning was a stiff breeze blowing into our faces which we both decided was better to have at our backs on the way back.

We chatted as we paddled - about paddling, family, friends, and everything under the sun. Our pace was relaxed, a pleasant paddle on a gloriously beautiful day.
If you look closely you'll notice, as we did, that there are signs of fall in the plants at the river's edge.

The river critters were quite active this morning. During our paddle we saw ducks, herons (3 in total), and to RT's delight swans with cygnets. We did resist the urge to sing the ugly duckling, though it was a close call.
It was a lovely trip and we will do it again sometime.

Unique's Photo Challenge: Power Lines

Power Lines over the Sudbury River.

See more of Unique's Photo Challenge here.

Shutterday: Grass

Marsh Grass along the Sudbury River

(One of these days I'll get around to writing up my kayak adventures.)

See more Shutterday here.

Lensday: Sunshine

Shining Through the Trees

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PhotoHunters: Light

Sunlight filtered through tree.

Taken along the Sudbury River September 23, 2007.

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Moody Monday: Smooth

Another shot from my October 21st kayak on the Charles River in Natick.

See more Moody Monday here.

PhotoHunters: Long

The Charles River winds its way through the countryside before it reaches Boston. By car from this point it's about 20 miles. By river 36.8.

See more PhotoHunters here.

End of a Near Perfect Weekend: Assabet River Paddle

The middle of last week the weather reports were predicting a break in the cold weather for Monday. When thinking about how to spend my long weekend I decided that I'd squeeze in another paddle before I put the kayak away for the winter. Monday sounded like the best time for this since the reports were calling for temperatures in the 60s.

The reports were wrong. We have yet to see the warm up that is still being predicted. But with temps in the 40s yesterday I decided to put on as many layers as I could and put the boat in the water. Polypro long johns, dry suit pants, insulated socks, three polypro layers on top, a fleece jacket, flannel hat, and full finger paddle gloves were the outfit of the day.

I decided to explore the Assabet River in Concord. The picture above shows the Sudbury River (to the left) and the Assabet River (to the right) where they join to form the Concord River. For this trip I used the same launch point which I used for my Concord River paddle. The Assabet was a new river for me. I've paddled both the Concord and the Sudbury several times, but had never been further than a few yards up the Assabet.

It was a gloomy day but there was no rain. There's not much color left on the trees. This section of the river runs through a wooded area with occasional houses, most set well back from the river.

The river was mostly calm with a few areas of faster moving water. I am frequently entertained by the patterns created by reflections and this trip was no exception.

As I worked my way up the river I took a number of pictures of reflections.





It was by and large a quiet paddle. I had the brief company of a couple of dogs, a hawk and a few ducks. Finally I came upon this obstruction which signaled the end of the paddle.

I also happened upon irrefutable evidence that the paddling season is over for me.

Your eyes are not deceiving you, that's ice. Naturally occuring at the edge of the river. It is definitely time to put the boat away.

On the way back to the launch site I was contemplating taking a picture of the plastic coyotes (they're supposed to scare away the geese) when out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. Looking over I saw these two white tail deer. They stayed still while I paddled away.


Now I just have to wait for the snow so I can strap on the snowshoes.

Charles River Needham

Another Sunday, another kayak trip. The location this Sunday was also the Charles River. The river is something like 60 miles long and all of it is within 20 miles of my house. This makes for a lot of options for kayaking on it. The launch site for this week was in Needham, near the Wellesley line.

Parking here is limited. There's easy parking for about 4 cars (or two cars and a pickup truck with a boat trailer). After that it gets kind of tricky. I ended up parked just beyond the gravel at the side of the road.


It was another clear blue sky day. That is where the similarities to the previous week's weather ended. This Sunday was chilly, and windy. I suited up in all of my cold weather paddle gear. I should have added a fleece jacket and the full finger gloves instead of the ones without finger tips.

The tree color was more muted this week. It was still very nice to look at and photograph, just without the glow of a week earlier.


This section of the river has more marsh than the section in Natick. Most of the marsh grass has gone to yellows and browns, but every once in a while there was a green clump.

The river winds through the marsh, making the paddled distance much longer than the "as the crow flies" distance.

The wind made the paddle challenging at points. There were a couple of times when I came around a corner and found myself paddling with all my might to keep moving forward.


Not many critter sightings along this stretch. I guess all the smart ones were hunkered down somewhere warm. I did see a couple of swans, and a few turtles.



I love the architecture of dead trees. I have many, many pictures of them. Which doesn't keep me from taking more. Somewhere I have a picture of this tree taken a year and a half ago, on a warm June day.

I have a story to go with the last picture. In fifth grade I was chosen, or won the opportunity - I honestly don't remember which, to decorate a bulletin board in the classroom with a classmate. It must have been in October because Jenny and I decided to create a haunted house scene on the board. I spent hours creating the perfect tree for the haunted house - gnarly and tangled. I had just learned how to draw a tree, including not having to deal with ending the branches by hiding them behind other branches. The one for the bulletin board was cut out of construction paper. This tree reminded me of that one.