Today we paddled from Axton to the Crusher, but this time under very strong winds. It was in our face a lot of the time, so it must have taken us longer than usual. It was good we were going downstream with a fairly strong current. We never would have gone out in a lake today with that wind, so the river was a good choice. There were 12 of us on the paddle, with the usual set of boats.
We had a nice 8 mile round trip paddle on the Upper Osgood today, though we were very tired at the end. The winds picked up so we were paddling upstream and against the wind. We put in off White Pine Road.
We saw an eagle just as we were setting out, then saw one loon on the pond.
I'm noticing the difference in the sky in these pictures from the photos I took at Rainbow Lake. The Canadian wildfire smoke is upon us again.
I like all the different greens.
We were thrilled to have warmer temperatures, sunshine, and blue sky today after a week of mid-40's temperatures and rain. That was perfect for our first paddle of the season. This was the traditional Memorial Day paddle to Rainbow Lake followed by a picnic with friends.
There were turtles everywhere. I guess they were as happy to see the sun as we were.
We stopped at the usual place for lunch and the lady slippers are just starting to open.
We drove to camp today. Due to construction in Syracuse, friends recommended we take a different route. So we tried the one suggested by friends who live in Keene Valley over the summer. We took 276 east to Rt 1, to 295 into to NJ, then Bear Tavern Rd and Harbourton-Rocktown Rd to Rt 31, stopping for a break at the QuickChek at the corner. Then 31 to 202 to 287 to 87 north. We got off 287 at Warrensburg the way we used to and stopped at Oscars before heading to camp. That is a much more scenic route into the Adirondacks than via Cranberry Lake.
We went to the Franklin Institute today, mainly to see the Body Worlds exhibit of the full-body palatinates. It is so easy to go to Philly by train, and the parking at Wawa is still free on weekends.
We packed up Monday, drove to Sanford for the train yesterday (which took less than an hour), and are finally home after the 2 1/2 hour drive from Lorton, VA. The train was on time and service was fine. We even got to eat in the dining car at 5:00 pm since we checked in early enough. The only complaint is still the hard mattress, which made sleeping difficult. And I'm having some vertigo issues again today, presumably just needing to get my land legs back after the motion of the train.
We are still trying to assess the success of the vacation. Our paddling trips were great but we did too much driving. It would have been so much better if we had been able to stop at Sanibel for a while on our way south. This was probably our last trip to the Everglades.
The crowds on the beach this weekend are quite impressive.
So we decided to drive to the southern end of the barrier island to Cape Canaveral National Seashore. We assumed there would be fewer people there, and we were right. Most of the folks we saw were fishermen. And for a good reason. We had forgotten that the beach there is very different. Instead of the beautiful flat expanse here, it is a steep beach with coarse soft sand which was difficult to walk on. We walked for about an hour and that will be our exercise for the day. We were hot and exhausted by the time we got back to the car.
We did another paddle with the Marine Discovery Center this morning. This time we started from the Center north of the northern causeway. We paddled a lot farther this time so we really got a workout. This pelican swam nearby and we saw lots more at a rookery with pelicans, great egrets and snowy egrets. I saw another yellow crowned night heron and we saw a couple more dolphins.
This morning we took a guided paddle with Marine Discovery tours. We put into the Indian River at the Indian River Lagoon Park just a mile from Ocean Trillium and took a slow paddle around the lagoon. It was too slow for my liking but it was a very nice paddle. The tide was out so the water was very low some places, with neat oyster beds sticking out.
This one has both red and black mangroves growing out of it.
I finally saw a yellow-crowned night heron, but didn’t get a good photo. We also saw brown pelicans,
a little blue heron, and a tricolor heron walking in the shallow water.
And then on the way back to the dock we saw two dolphins that swam near us for quite a way.
