Snow

Wow, what a nice trip! We put the kayak in the water at Welch and rowed for 7 hours to Redwing on the Mississippi River.

Here are the visuals:

pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

And here is the map Troy made and I added to:

View Larger Map

Photography from a kayak is a challenge – you look up, you get mostly flat water, you look down, you photograph your feet!

Well, I linked up with a visitor from S Dakota and we went onto Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles this afternoon.

The weather was absolutely superb – almost better than last Saturday morning! And I was home at 7.30 again.

This morning I was wondering how “cool” paddling would be – the temperature was only 65ºF when I put the kayak in the water at the northern beach on Lake Calhoun.  There was now wind however, and a bit of rowing kept me perfectly warm!

The first photo in this little gallery that shows the bridge, is my best paddling photo ever – it contains the crisp clear and fresh lake air, the blue sky, the tranquility of the trees and the life of the city is shown by the runners enjoying nature.

On Hyland Lake – while waiting for some fellow South Africans to arrive for a Braai.  The water was a bit choppy with a slight breeze, but the kayak handled vary well.

There was quite a bit of branches in the water from the storm a day before.  On the north side of the island in the lake, several trees were down or badly broken by the storm.

The little water turtles enjoyed the sun on the pieces of driftwood, but as soon as I can close, they would dive into the water…  just to appear a few seconds later as almost curious little nose tips and eyes above the water.

As summer seems to dwindle, the days are getting shorter – by now it is virtually dark at nine in the evenings.  And the available hours for kayak trips are shrinking alarmingly fast as well.

So even though it was a bit early to get up, I had to take advantage of the current warm weather we are having and so I was out on Fish Lake in Eagan at 6.30am this morning.  This is truly a very special way to start your day…!

Before Church we went out on the St Croix river. I took my kayak and Troy took his tandem – the second seat was occupied by Jacques and we really enjoyed the morning.

We went upstream from where the I94 crosses the St Croix to the upstream side of the train bridge. Next time we will see how far up we can get – Maybe all the way to Stillwater.

Early morning on Lake of the Isles.  The water is like glass and everything is super calm – totally the oposite of my previous thunderstorm experience on this lake!

At the ceiling of the bridge I spent the thunderstorm under, a bird (swallow maybe) had built a nest, suspended from who-knows-what.  Three little heads can be seen with some imagination and the mom is sitting on something left of the nest.

Early morning out on Fish lake again – it is only ten minutes from our house and big enough to get some exercise on.

There was a curious little black fellow on the bank of the lake – he looked to me like a weasel or ferret and was just as much at home on land as in the water. At one point he slipped into the water and within seconds some ducks who were close by flew off the water in obvious panic! And then he appeared again from the water, not having caught breakfast …

The group, Men About Christian Service, from our church went on a canoe trip down the St Croix river and I joined them, of course in my own boat!

We went down from Taylor’s Falls to Oceola – 8 miles and a good three hours of leisure.