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!!