Fine day for a paddle.

By the way, I did pass the Night Navigation class, with flying colors, and I'm pleased I practiced because they weren't kidding when they said it was a tough course.

 

Today was finally beautiful and warm. The sun was radiant, the morning promised only gentle breezes and the temps were predicted to be mid 50's. You know what that means, paddles must get wet. I made the obligatory phone calls to see if anyone was available to join me, they weren't, so I loaded up the boat and took myself to a quiet little lake where the Sandhill Cranes are known to nest. It's an ideal spot for birding with all the cattails and wetland areas, plus the lake is in the middle of a state game area, which means no houses. There are water trails and creeks to follow which lead to other lakes with houses, but this particular one is undeveloped.

 

Look who I found, just a dancin' and a jigglin'.

He's clearly happy and having a good time. Yes, he really was jumping up and down like this. His girlfriend is just to the right of this picture so I'm sure he was showing off for her. This link lets you hear the call and see the jumping.

 Such odd looking birds with an equally odd call.

Okay, so I went out to the lake to paddle, but I found that it was still nearly frozen solid. There was an open channel I could paddle to get to the lake, but once there I was only able to paddle a little ways along the shore before I ran into the sheet of ice. Apparently, 60 degrees doesn't melt the ice that fast. Something comical, the Goose in the back slipped and fell just after I captured this shot. I laughed, out loud. I hope I didn't embarrass him.

 

Clearly, I wasn't going to get much paddling in, but since I was also prepared for birding, I backed myself into the reeds where I could be out of the breeze, took off my shoes and kicked back to watch the scenery. I kind of liked that I was out there barefoot, not wearing a coat, and yet the geese were walking on ice.

Ah, welcome back, Spring.

Red-winged Blackbird keeping me company. I have a fondness for these birds as their call always reminds me of warm summer days spent outside when I was a child.

I happened to glance down while I was in the shallows and saw this. Could it be? Is it? It was frozen in the muck and even after digging and digging at it with my paddle, I still had to stick my hand in the icy water to retrieve it, and yes, it was a blue Mason jar. What the heck? 

Oh, no, Goose, I don't see you hunkered down in there. I swear, you're totally camouflaged in the reeds.

I don't have pictures because they were too far away, but I also saw swans, Mallards, a couple of raptors and a few unidentifiable birds.

See, it was a Mason jar...and a green wine bottle also had to be retrieved. By the way, the water was so cold it made my fingers hurt.

 

Yep, fine day for paddling, for birding and for treasure hunting.

Take me to the water.

I've never done well in the heat, but after this summer, I'm learning to deal with it. In past years I've foregone paddling when the temps were too high, but we've had such a long period of sustained heat this year that I would have missed all of my outdoor fun. I'm learning to push through the heat to still do what makes me happy and since being outside makes me happy, I said yes when asked to join a quick evening paddle trip last night even though the evening temp was just over 90 and the humidity was thick in the air. 

The Thornapple is a pretty river that I've paddled quite often and it's just a couple towns South.  It's not too heavily used, has a slow but steady current, it's clean and teeming with wildlife. Quite lovely actually. We put in at Irving Road and paddled a couple hours into Middleville.

 Just a couple hours, but enough to let go and feel the calm. So lovely, and floating down the river with my feet dangling over the side of my boat was very refreshing. Ahhhh...

Aw Shucks!

Warning: this post is heavy on paddling pictures. Haha...paddling seems to be what I post about the most.

Due to some miscommunication, I ended up with no plans for Easter. Shucks, guess I'll call B and tell him we can go paddling after all. He took it one better and we loaded up the truck and boats Saturday evening and headed to a favorite lake of ours to sleep in the woods and have ourselves a pretty little sunrise paddle. It was his favorite lake, but now I've sort of taken ownership of it too.

We pulled into a cozy launch site just before sunset, quickly made up the bed in the truck and headed down to the water with our chairs, a bottle of wine and sandwiches so we could watch the "nature channel"...we were not disappointed. The frogs were singing when we arrived, but just after we sat down, the water fowl started returning to the safety of an island in the lake. Geese came skidding in for their landings with a great deal of honking and grunting and each time a new pair arrived, it would set the others to honking and greeting. Lots of ducks did their graceful ski landings, but they weren't quite as noisy as the geese. Sandhill Cranes were returning to their nesting sites in the cattails. If you haven't heard them before, it's sort of creepy and prehistoric sounding. It's not hard to understand how they could have dinosaurs as distant ancestors.

There were also a couple of Muskrats making a spectacle of themselves with their splashing and swimming back and forth in front of us. Little bit of muskrat love?

7 a.m. and we're on the water. We love our early morning paddle adventures, but both of us agree that it's much nicer when we're actually camping on the water instead of driving here in the morning.

This water path through the cattails leads to another lake that we like to explore. Four lakes will be explored today after we find a similar, but narrower path that leads to a new to us lake, and later still, we'll explore a stream we have seen on previous visits that opens into yet another lake.

Someone had to have been up really early to have worked geometry on the lake before I got here. I've said it before, but I just love the reflections in the morning. Some are pretty funny.

Loons.

Wood Ducks

Coot.

Red-winged Blackbirds are one of my favorite birds to hear out-of-doors. It's one of the first bird calls I can remember learning as a child and they always tell me it's summer and I'm having fun.

The choir.

This path lead to the third lake. I had to take my kayak paddle apart and work my boat like a canoe. There was no room to paddle normally. Wait, did I just say that paddling a canoe is abnormal? haha...just kidding, B. Loved this path, narrow, twisty, turny, and then it opened out onto a delightful lake with a series of little coves and nooks. I could spend a whole afternoon just lazing in this lake with a good book and a little bit of food to snack on. So pretty.

Mm hmm, that stream I said we explored? In order to get upstream we first had to get under this bridge by laying down in our boats and pulling ourselves along by grabbing the underneath of the bridge. Oh, the things we'll do for an adventure. ~grins~ We didn't know there was a lake at the end of the stream. We just hadn't paddled here before. Now we have and we'll probably do it again, especially since we rarely see other people on these lakes. We saw our first turtles of the season in the stream. Someone was pointing them out to me by t-thunking them (gently) on the back with his paddle and then he asked me if I thought it bugged them. Gee, I dunno, but it might bug me. ~grins~

Marsh Marigolds are in bloom.

I don't know what this is really called, but I call it skunk weed and it's always one of the first woodland plants to come up.

We joked that we had found our Easter basket when we saw this nest of goose eggs hidden in the cattails. Apparently, it wasn't hidden well enough since we noticed all the eggs were broken.

This turtle was not t-thunked, but he sure was enjoying the sunshine.

A member of the Muskrat Love gang?

And finally, some of the new Spring blooms happening in the woods all around us. How different the woods will look in a week.

Until the next time, enjoy your Spring.

'Bout time!

That we got back out for a sunrise paddle and took the boy with us.

Apparently, it is possible for the weather to be too hot to paddle. Seems a little odd since we're on the water, but it's the getting ready, and loading boats, and putting them in the water and the fact that we're paddling on the water...not in it. Yes, it's been a very hot summer so I'm thrilled with the break in the heat so I can get back on the water.

He had been sick earlier in the week, but when I called him on Saturday to ask if he was willing to be picked up at 6 a.m. the next morning he said without hesitation, "yes, I'm all better. I'll get up at 5:45 and be waiting for you." He was.

And he was happy about it. That's my boy. This is only the second time he's been paddling and frankly, he's a natural. I thought so the first time, but now I can see he has good balance and he's quick to feel how the boat moves and the different strokes needed to make it move the way he wants it to.

There he goes...not a care in the world...simply relaxed and attentive to the natural world into which he was floating.

These were a pleasant find and though we watched for a while from a distance, we eventually closed them in just long enough to get pictures before giving them lots of room to move away from us. I'm a little afraid of swans (as I should be) and these were noisily chattering and honking at us as they expressed their displeasure at having their exit blocked, if only for a little while.

I'm not sure who was the more inquisitive about whom...the Heron or us? He/she was funny and let us get quite close before flying down the shore.

Hehe...I apologized to D-I-L because I can see he's going to be addicted to 2 potentially expensive hobbies, but that's what we do outside, we document our adventures. It can't be helped.

See? He doesn't go far. Do you suppose he knows we're no threat?

Already angling for the perfect shot.

It was a gorgeous morning to be on the water. I thought it was going to be chilly, but it warmed up quickly in the four hours we spent paddling in and out of coves and across the lake. Not quite as much wildlife as when we were there in the Spring, but it's such a pretty lake that we didn't mind. You know I'm thrilled that he likes paddling so much. I anticipate many grand adventures with this boy.

(Rubbing my hands together with glee!)

I finally woke up to snow on Friday morning. Brent and I took my grandson to the symphony Thursday evening and I mentioned somewhat expectantly that I love it when it snows after a Christmas concert. Hey, it happens frequently for me so I didn't think it was too much to expect it to happen again. I had also been feeling a tiny bit envious of those of you who had already received a good snowfall and I was being patient, but seriously, it's December and I wanted snow. Well, wadda ya know....it was snowing when we walked out of the concert.

I thought my morning view was beautiful.

This was so worth the wait.

So, what did snow mean to an outdoorsy, nature loving girl like me? It meant a snowy walk in the woods Saturday afternoon, that's what it meant.



Aman Park is close to home and has great hiking trails that wind along Sand Creek. It was a little late for taking pictures, but the walk was beautiful and the snow was really crunchy. We purposely went out late so we could be hiking in the dark.

Then, we did this on Sunday. There is nothing like winter paddling. The rivers have little or no traffic, it's quiet and beautiful, and you feel like you own the world. And, to answer your questions, no, we don't get cold. At least not any colder than someone who's gone skiing because you dress for the weather and you do NOT fall in the water. Not to worry though, I carry a dry bag with extra clothes....just in case. Okay, okay, yes, I've rolled my kayak (twice) in the winter and it was really, really freakin' cold! Okay? Now you know. Furthermore, I sold the boat that made me swim because it just wasn't working for the sort of paddling I was doing and I bought this pretty little thing this past summer.

This is her first time in the snow. She didn't mind at all. In fact, I think she rather enjoyed the snowy day and she certainly behaved well since I didn't do any swimming - not even close.


Look, I'm sitting on the ice right now.

And how nice of them to light up the river just for me!

We've got 'the blizzard' blowing in now. Perhaps I'll take another walk tonight when the weather is absolutely frightful. Won't that be fun?

Pondering hibernation.

My body tells me winter is officially here. This happens every year for about a month around the winter solstice when all I want to do is sleep. It's pretty annoying because I feel like I'm missing out on all the fun outside activities but the sleep feels so good. Just a few more days and we start on the other side with the days getting longer so all will be well again.
Yes, it's been snowing - beautiful, fluffy, lovely snow, which makes me itchy to get back on the water. Those of us who are year-round paddlers are like that. KL and I went prowling around Kalamazoo on Saturday and ended up in the boat shop looking at kayaks. What?? Isn't that what you would do in the snow?
I'm officially in love - seriously - with this pretty little thing. I can't demo it until the water opens up, but I did sit in it and it fits like a glove. I swear, it's the best feeling boat I've tried. According to what I've read it tracks great and has superb maneuverability. If that's true then it's going home with me. Oh, and that soft lime green? It's just beautiful in person.
K, going back to sleep now.