All Good Things Must Come To....A Beginning!

   It's that time of year when intrepid kayakers become intrepid teachers again.  Though the thought was hard for me to bear at first, I have adjusted to it.  Especially since I got a great ride last Saturday.
  I finally got to go to Long Pond, which I have been trying to get to for awhile now.  It was choppy (again! It's like that pond gets wind when nowhere else does), but I figured out how to make it a good time.  I paddled out into the waves, turned around, and rode them back in.  Good times.  Like my sister, M, said: "You didn't even have to go to the fair!" And that was pretty much the entire ride.
  Well, I didn't just bob around the WHOLE time. I paddled around and check out some cool looking rocks and ducks, too. But, for some reason, those waves pushing me into shore was just what I needed.  The rocking, the rolling, the wind; all perfect stress relievers that I desperately needed!
  The Rhythm isn't going into hibernation yet!  I intend to go as far into October as the weather will allow.  Of course, rides will be getting fewer and farther between the more my duties as a teacher and student demand more and more of me, but I figure, why quit cold turkey?  Ease out this year, dive in next....

Cool ducks....

Cool rocks...

From whence I came...

No need to go anywhere...

Excuses, Penny's Issues, and Kiddie Rides!

  Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to go kayaking, mostly because I spent some time in NC visiting this little person and her mom:

Miss S!

  So cute, huh?
  But, the famine was broken last Saturday when a bunch of us went "Up River" to pick some blueberries and eat some lunch.  I took the opportunity to hook the Rhythm up and head to Lake Stan.  

The blueberries I picked before kayaking!

   This was the first time that my dog, Penny, came with me on a kayaking trip.  She was highly unimpressed.  She basically stood on the bank and cried when I tried to paddle out into the middle of the pond, and tried to follow me.  Then, I suppose out of shear desperation, she ate some grass.  It was a sad, ugly scene.  

Penny, looking really disconcerted.

     Penny finally got distracted enough to calm down when my Aunt R, Uncle L, and little cousins L and M (5and 3) came down for a visit.  After watching for a little bit, L decided that he wanted a ride, so he strapped on the mini life jacket that I brought and rode shotgun!  Well, as shotgun as you can get in a kayak.  Penny chased us a little bit, which gave L a tickle, then it was time to head to shore and pick up M.  When she got in, I asked her, "Did you see the doggie chase me and L?"  She replied, "No, I was peeing."  
  Which was good that she got it over with, because I think that she enjoyed her ride a lot more.   

This was L's turn....

And this was M's!

"Stop Looking At Me Swan!"

  So, right up front, there will be no pictures for this post.  I am sorry if that crushes anyone's soul.  It is not my fault that my camera has chosen to take some time off in an undisclosed location.  The upside of this lack of pictures, if there is one, is that my most recent trip was to Swan Lake again, so there are already pictures of it.
  I took Swan Lake from a different location this time, one that was far more protected than the wind riddled state park beach that I tried to leave from before.  It took me three times as long to find this public boat landing as I expected, but once I got there, I was excited to get out on the water again.  
  I paddled along, admiring people's lakeside "camps" (they looked more like year-round houses to me) and listening to the cars drive by on the road that I was following.  I saw that someone had moored their kayak just offshore at their camp, which I thought was funny.  Was their kayak so heavy that they weren't able to pull up to their little beach like they had their other kayak?  I will never know, as no one was around to ask.  
  All of a sudden, the sky opened up and began to rain all over me AND my parade.  I turned around, sort of expecting thunder and lightning soon (since the weather man had threatened them) and before long had the Rhythm back on-board the Forester.  I put my new cockpit cover on, which I was really grateful for later when it started to rain EVEN HARDER!!   And, I did get the satisfaction of conquering Swan Lake before the sky let loose; it is no longer mocking me and ruining my kayaking record!
  The weather calls for rain all this week, so it doesn't look like I am going to get much of an opportunity to kayak.  So, for now, the Rhythm is resting under her new tarp under the deck.  I can't wait to get out again, when I think I finally may make it to Long Pond! *Fingers Crossed!*


P.S. Thank you to Adam Sandler for the title of this blog post/movie quote!

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Nelson!

  Another wedding yesterday!  Congratulations to the Nelson family...the wedding was beautiful!

The Nelsons!  

More to come soon!  I actually have been kayaking recently, I just haven't had time to write yet!

The Long March

  First of all, I want to show off the kayak paddle charm that C bought me as a maid of honor gift:

A tiny kayak paddle on a big kayak paddle!

Tiny kayak paddle on my life jacket!

     Wicked cute, huh?

    After a CRAZY week last week (let me just say, I am so fresh off C and J's wedding that I can still smell the spray tan seeping out of my pores when I run) , I was looking forward to a little kayaking today.  Which is why, when I got to Long Pond and it was too windy, I was quite disappointed.  But, I wasn't going to give up that easy.  I decided to try Spring River Lake again.  As some of you may recall, I had tried to go to Spring River before, but was unable to find a boat put-in.  Today, I looked at the map, and saw that there was a boat landing...a hand-carry one.  Translation: portage.
  I did a little preview of the path, sans kayak, to get a feel for what I was up against.  Picture a mountain hiking path, rife with rocks, roots, and loose dirt.  Now picture me carrying a forty-seven pound kayak plus all my gear down over it.  Owwwww.....
  After actually beginning the portage, I was happy to realize that it wasn't all that bad.  When I got to the bottom, all the beach patrons, much like my supportive friend from Montegail, said, "Wait until you have to carry it back up!"  Thanks, heartless twits  kind people!  I can't get mad at all of them, though; there was one kind lady who offered to help me carry it down.  I politely declined, out of sheer stupidity.  
  But, the paddle was well worth it.....

The beach I started from.

The far side of Spring River Lake.

This is the beach I was baptized on; it's just on the other side of some trees  of the public beach.

There was an eagle in this tree, but he refused to come out once I took out my camera.

The wind blew me into the middle of the goonies.  Ewww....

     The portage back up the hill definitely raised my heart rate!  I was happy to get home and rest my aching hip and shoulder.  I'm thinking I'm probably going to order some of those little wheel things that attach to my kayak and help with the portage from L.L. Bean....but that could be cheating.

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Strout!

  I am dedicating a post to my newly married sister, C and her husband, J.  Their wedding was beautiful!  Congratulations to you both!!

First Dance as husband and wife!!

Goonie Free Beaches, As Far As The Eye Could See.....

  I was beginning to feel like the Baudelaire children.  A Series of Unfortunate Events had befallen me for the past few days, starting with the strong wind at Swan Lake and ending with the Rhythm slipping out of the rack and almost falling off the car between Ellsworth and Bucksport.  I really needed a good paddle.
 So, fortunately, my Uncle C (you've noticed a lot of people with 'C' for a first initial, huh?  You're just going to have to trust that I know who they are) suggested I try out Donnell Pond.  I had a day free ahead of me, decided to use it.
  Both Daniel and my phone (which is as yet unnamed) assisted me in getting to Donnell Pond.  Occasionally they would argue, but both wanted me to go in the same direction taking relatively the same route.  Daniel wanted to drop me off at the head of Donnell Pond Road; my phone was gracious enough to take me all the way to the boat landing.  Yay, teamwork!  
  I started out paddling along, staying just outside the reach of people jumping off their camp docks into the water.  A breeze blew me along, and I had to park myself on some rocks in order to get some good pictures.

Camps on Donnell

A pretty awesome bench that I "parked" near

My hand, holding me on the rock.

    There was this cool little rock garden in the middle of the pond, that I hung out in for awhile.  What I love about things like that it, while I can navigate them easily, motorboats cannot.  Therefore I get a good view of the surroundings without having to worry about being run over.  

Some members of the rock garden

Another member of the rock garden

That is the direction from whence I came, and where I shall return.

    I made a quick dash to the other side of the pond so that I could see some different sights on the way back, and I had to paddle like a MADWOMAN!!  The wind hit me hard; I couldn't stop paddling or I would have been blown backwards!!  I really had to rest it out on the other side, so I pulled up beside what seemed to be a forgotten dock to rest.  Hopefully no one was too offended that I did so; I did find one creature that might have been.

Whew!!  Need a break!!

I hope I didn't bother this bug too much.  He looks like he could be worse than whatever lives in the goonies if he got angry.

   Finally,  I have attempted to leave you with a small video that was taken on my journey today.  Hopefully, if it works, there can be more!

Almost Only Counts in Hand Grenades and Horseshoes. And Kayaking.

  I do not accept defeat well.  I can be just a bit pig-headed in trying to work out anything so that it works in my favor.  But, unfortunately, defeat sometimes wins.  And that was the case yesterday at Swan Lake State Park in Swanville, ME.
  I have a class in Belfast, and I decided the way to make it a little more bearable was to take the Rhythm along with me and conquer some lakes in that area.  I asked my good friend Daniel to help me find said State Park.

Daniel boldly leading the way.


  So what if my good friend is a GPS?

  I arrived at Swan Lake around noon, paid my obligatory four dollars, and carried my kayak down to the beach.  And then....wow....WIND!   "It can't be as bad as it looks."  I thought.  So I loaded up and climbed aboard.  Yeah, it was as bad as it looked.   I was riding those waves!  And getting nowhere!!  Finally, I gave up, turned around, and took some pictures.

There's that chop!

You can kind of see the waves coming on to shore here.

The Rhythm was ready for anything with the paddle float.

   A good kayaker always has a back-up plan.  I brought the Rhythm BACK UP the path, loaded it back on to the Forester, and grabbed my handy dandy beach chair.

A very pretty beach!

A pretty acceptable alternative to kayaking.

    The good news in all of this is that, on my way around the lake to class, I saw a public boat landing in a more protected area of the lake.  I'll be back Swan Lake;  you won't defeat me again!!

Thought It Was Over? Ya Tunk Wrong.

  Today's original destination was Spring River Lake, but when I got there, there was no place to put-in!  Usually I'm up for a good portage but today....hmmmmm.....not so much.  So I turned tail and headed back to good ole Tunk.  
  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures today because there weren't many new opportunities, but I did take this one.

New dry box!!

My new dry box!  It conveniently held my camera, phone, sunscreen, and keys!  And it looks nice. 
    Since it was WAY too hot to paddle very much today, I decided to try out some safety equipment.  I did not flood my boat or flip myself over, but I did pump out some lake water and inflate my paddle float.  It was pretty exciting.  Then, I decided that I had no choice but to swim.
  The hardest part of swimming was finding a goonie free area.  If you don't know what goonies are, here are some samples.

The GOONIESSSSS!!!!!

Ze grindylows, ze grindylows!!

       Goonies are gross, and I refuse to swim in or near them because the plants touch my feet and legs and it all turns into something out of a Harry Potter movie.  In fact, because of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I seem to have this odd feeling that grindylows (water demons) are lurking in the goonies.  The goonies sure look like they may be hiding grindylows.  And let's not even mention the merpeople.  Anyway, finding a goonie free spot was harder than it may seem, but I was eventually able to find an area near the old Tunk put in spot to take a quick dunk.  
  Yes, it was a lovely day.  And the best part of all was the help I got from C with unloading my kayak at the end of my journey.  He didn't even get to do the fun part, and he was still willing to help me.  C, you are the best.  


      Here is a bonus shot for the day.

Ahhh, the force is strong with this one!

The Townships, America

   When I explained to my college roommate that there were some towns in Maine that had so few people in them that they were actually townships, not towns, she said "That is so sad.  I think they all deserve to be named."  But, I think if she had seen where I was today, she probably would've seen the point of a township.  
   Pretty Pond is now used for irrigation by one of the larger blueberry companies in the area, but when I was little we took baths in it after raking (again, sorry to the Green Peace folks).  Then, it went through a time period when it had a very bad reputation...a "used needle" reputation.  Today, though, I saw only one used condom...so  we're back on the upswing!  The funny thing is, I didn't stay here long because of the WIND!!  I got a few paddles in around the edges, then had to call it quits because I couldn't make headway on any course I tried.  What I did get was a few good shots of an apparently RAGING party, and the sign above it that urged everyone to keep Maine green.

Pretty Pond...pretty, huh?

An awesome party happened here, and I was not invited.

A sign that urges us to keep Maine green...that is a beer bottle above the sign, yes.

     My next stop was Lake Stan...an irrigation pond that my grandfather, father, and uncles built this past spring. The best part of Lake Stan was that it was big enough to paddle around, but small enough that I could drift,read, and chill.  Basically, it consisted of paddling across the pond and then being blown back across it.

The Rhythm getting ready to take Lake Stan.

A piece of my family's blueberry land.

There is where my shoes like to ride while I paddle.

   I had company on this trip, in the form of my dad, sister, and cousin for lunch (who were spraying blueberry ground) and two little frogs, one of whom I got a picture of.  Yup....good day =D.

One green and speckled frog, sat on a speckled log....

Family Friendly Kayaking (SunSCREAM!!)

  Before I post about today's trip, I have to mention that this whole ordeal with the kayaking has been a lot on my family.  We were not campers, canoers, kayakers, hikers, or anything too outdoorsey as children...in fact, had it not been for P.E. class in high school, I probably still wouldn't have set foot in a canoe or kayak. And, of course, the week that I finally take the plunge and purchase my kayak, the second kayak-related drowning takes place off the coast Bar Harbor, ME.  So to say again....this has been a lot on my family.  
  Which is how I came to be in possession of a lot of new safety gear for my kayak today. 

First Aid kit, survival blanket, water purifying tablets, waterproof flashlight, and T.P.!

Half of my paddle wearing its new leash.

My blaze orange safety whistle on my life jacket.  When I first blew it my dog looked at me like I was an idiot.

Bilge pump and paddle float, the dangerous safety equipment.

  A whistle, a bilge pump, a paddle float, a survival blanket, water purifying tablets, a paddle leash, and a waterproof flashlight all arrived in an L.L. Bean box that was only slightly damaged (depending on your definition of slightly damaged.  I mean, it wasn't open yet or anything, but probably close).  The funny thing is, I am not exactly sure how to use the bilge pump or the paddle float.  I have a pretty good idea, but I am thinking that I am going to have to PUT MYSELF IN the dangerous situation in order to determine how to get out of that situation using said tools.  There's irony for you.
      Yesterday, I added sunscreenSCREAM to my arsenal.  I am not a huge fan of sunscreen.  As I child, my mother practically bathed us in it and I wore it without question, but I often wondered if I would prefer the feeling of a burn over the inch of grease that the sunscreen created boiling on my forehead and dropping into my eyes.  Not to mention the fact that the last sunscreen I used landed me in the ER with a rash all over my body and an itchy throat and face.  These thoughts were weighing on my mind as I realized that I needed a little UV protection before my next trip, and I drove to Rite Aid in search of this protection.  If possible, I wanted to find something that smelled a little less.....evil than regular sunscreen.  Yes, that is what I imagine evil to smell like.  That old No-AD, SPF 305 sunscreen....*SHUDDER*

SPFs 70 and 85...enough to send harmful UV rays RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES!

    And this is what I found.  I love Aveeno.  It's so gentle you can use it on babies, and they have Baby Aveeno that is apparently so gentle you can use it on even smaller babies.  
   My life jacket, first aid kit, and water bottles are welcoming all the new safety equipment company in the Forester right now.  That is family friendly kayaking.


P.S. Did you notice what was in the top of the shot in the first picture?  T.P. baby....remembered it today!

Hot, Hot, Hot Tunk

  Well, it was a beautiful day at Tunk Lake, folks.  And it was hot!  Hot enough to breed dragonflies!  I know this for a fact because there were two of them breeding on the bow of the Rhythm while I tried to avert my  eyes.  
  This trip started out the same way as the other two with the still somewhat eventful loading and unloading, but it was much different when I actually got out on the water.  That lake was like glass, not even a little ripple of breeze across it.  

The start, calm as calm could be...

  I was pretty excited when I spotted a lily pad flower not far from where I was.  This was a different kind than the one that I ran over the other day, and I am proud to say that I did not run this one over, I just dunked it a little bit with my paddle (when I turned around to check it out, the flower was fine, no worries).  After that, I spotted a beaver dam!  I have some history with beaver dams, hearkening back to my La Vida days.  I checked for beavers before I got to close to take the picture you see below....I really had no desire to ruin a beaver's day.

Lily pad flower, unharmed by this picture.

Yup, that there is some mighty beaverish water!

          I both packed and remembered my lunch today, which was pretty exciting, since Mom and M both know that  packing and remembering are not as easy as they seem.  I ate cold pizza and cherries on my kayak....lovely.  You have not lived until you've spit cherry pits from your kayak. (For those of you who are worried about the "green-ness" of this idea, I personally believe that if a fish can't handle a cherry pit then "natural selection" probably would've gotten it soon anyway). It was about this time I grounded out.  Yup, hit a REAL shallow part between some weeds.  The worst part of this was the fact that there were two people canoeing behind me and I know that they saw it; for some reason I found it very embarrassing.  I paddled away from them as fast as I could because, like I felt with the older gentlemen who peed in the bushes near Fox Pond, I did not want these people ruining my experience.

Mmmmmmmmm.......cherries........

    While I eating, I paddled around to another part of the lake, and suddenly met enough head wind to make up for all the lack of it before hand.  I had to paddle hard to make my rounds, check out some random rocks, and get back.  Then I let 'er drift....sweet ending to a sweet trip

Drifting away...

...away...

  Finally, let me mention that I did all of this, and have been doing all of this, with a nasty belly scar.  

B-A belly scar

     I know....ewwwwww.....but a little bit B-A, right?  (Ask for help if you need to know what B-A means.  I don't want to ruin my blog with any bad words  =D).