August 20, 2014 Tippy Canoe and Dougley too

Wednesday August 20, 2014

I know I promised more on the training of humans.  I will do that.  But for today, I gotta tell you about this new place that we are living.  There are critters with my name on them.  Look!  There is one now!  Ooof!  That hurt my neck... if I only had a little more lead line I know I could get one!

It was a chilly night and with the canopy of trees, it was dark even though the sun was up.  We didn't get out of bed till after 8am.  Once up, my walk took me to the Slapfoot hiking trail along the lake.  When I saw how warm and calm it was, I rushed back.  Spouse was making our lunches and we headed to Jake's Landing to rent our canoe.

You can rent them by the hour, or by the day and they do that based on when you come back.  My idea is to head to the lake first, and when the wind comes up (and it always does), we would head up the Mersey River.  Of course, Spouse spends the first half hour fidgeting with this, that and the other.   We finally get in the canoe.  It is not a stable thing but we manage to keep dry.  We head out to the lake.  As usual, the first 10 minutes is bickering about this and that.   Do it this way... No, I'll do it that way.  Steer us that way.  Hey!  We finally reach our comfort zone and move on.

 

 

 

 

 

It is absolutely beautiful.  The water is glassy, the air temperature is warm.  It is quiet except from the noise of our paddles hitting the water.  This is how it was centuries ago when the Indians inhabited the area.    We paddle around this island, then over to that island.  We pull onshore and eat some of our lunch.  The water is not cold, but not warm.  Good for a quick dip.  The islands are heavily forested and the ground is soft, soft, soft from years of pine needles accumulating.  Some of the islands have a picnic table and maybe an outhouse.  People canoe or kayak over with their camping gear.  I imagine the nights are fantastic.  We started to head over to the next island when the winds started up so we followed my plan and headed for the shelter of the river.  It was a whole lot of work.  We are glad we got the early start.

 

Spouse, stop steering us to the shore. 

It is calmer near shore.

Not if you are on the windward side!  They call that 'on the rocks'.

 

We finally get in the lee of some land and head up the Mersey.  The wind is dead against us.  By now, we have been more than 3 hours.  There are beautiful water plants like lotus, and we can see the fall beginning in the trees.  A little yellow and orange, but a bit more of the reds.  We paddle against the wind.  Finally, Spouse says he is done.

 

I suggest we pull over and finish our lunch.  The first spot was too easy so we paddled on until Spouse saw a small clearing.

Spouse, it is too steep.

No it isn't.  Just step out and pull me up.
I am not worried about getting on shore.  Getting off will be a problem.
It will be easy.
Hmmmm...

 We enjoy the rest of our lunch, talking to those who paddle by.  Then we go to launch.  Good thing our dry bag and backpack were attached to the canoe.  It wasn't as easy as Spouse thought it would be and he tipped and fell into the water.  I tried not to laugh, I really did.  We were successful the next time.  But his binoculars are ruined.  Crap!

 On our way back to camp, we checked out the road to some hiking trails.  Wouldn't you know the hike that I wanted to do back to ancient hemlocks and hardwoods was closed.  Tomorrow, we might do a short river hike before we hit the road.  We did see a wild grouse cross the road.  Until now, I had only seen a wild grouse on the National Geographic channel and it was probably being eaten by a fox.

Back at camp, we gave Rudy some outdoor time.  These tiny little squirrels keep coming by and he is chasing them as fast as he can run till the leash jerks him back.  He is all sorts of excited by the action here and the smells.  I bet his neck is a little sore tomorrow though!

In the evening, we went for a walk and I took Spouse on the Slapfoot trail.  It seemed pretty dark in the campground with the canopy of trees, but when we got to the lake, we experienced a most beautiful sunset... and no camera.  Oh well.

Spouse is determined to burn every bit of wood we have in a campfire.  Hopefully, you will not be hearing about us on the nightly news...  And we did go view the dark night sky.  Seeing the milky way took me back to all of our camping trips at Lake Mohave and Lake Powell where we laid in our cots and watched the sky.  Eye candy.