Kayak Trip Six
August 3rd, 2003 – Lake Elmo
This lake is adjacent to “Stinky Lake”, Eagle Point Lake, where we did Trip One!
This time we had a deadline, the mommies at home wanted to get to bed early and we did not have a lot of time for rowing. We put to water around 7.00pm and made the best of it – less leisure and more workout was the theme of the evening. But the beauty was immediately there as you can see on this photo Troy took of some seagulls on a diving platform. He took the photo directly into the sun, but the digital camaras handle that without a problem! (OK, I know, the seagulls flew away just before he could take the photo, so you will have to imagine them on the platform!)
We do not just row for the exercise, but also to explore and see a part of the planet relatively few people people see – at least from the angle we view it. On one edge of Lake Elmo, we found this huge expanse of water lilies.
Most of the blooms had just reached above the water and was starting to open. We did not want to do any damage, but it was in any case not easy to row in these conditions. We do, however try to go into as many unique spots as we can find.
The difference between kayaking and canoeing is the splashing in a kayak – the canoeists seem to sit high and dry – like being in a sedan. We think of Kayaks as being the motorcycles of watersports – you are right there in the thick of things, getting wet, being fast and zipping in and out.
At the end of this trip we met people who were taking a large motorboat out of the water and they asked if we had tipped over. We said no, but it was only when we got home and realised the fronts of our shirts were wet through, that we knew where their questions came from.
Photography is tricky – Troy has a waterproof case for his camara, and so photo time means no paddling and splashing. And for one of us to appear in the photo, you stretch out a long arm with the camara at the end to put some distance between the camara and the person.
Sunday evening trips mean that we are still out on the water when the sun starts to go down after eight in the evening – tranquillety prevails.
All these wonderful photos of our trips are courtesy of Troy – you can see his own journal at http://www.dalldorf.com/adventures/ (Just do a search on ‘kayak’!)
