A Little Spot of Kayak Bliss

canal.jpgThe Twinz of Terror did a death marathon this weekend — Dead Stream River all the way to the otherwise inaccessible Bear Lake and back. I enjoy a good death marathon or biathlon or whatever once in a while. I generally like to get a *lot* of exercise. But I don’t always like to do death marches and this was their trip. It’s okay. This morning was *perfect* for kayaking to The End of The Canal.

I don’t exactly know why I like The End of The Canal so much. It’s not some big fancy kayak trip, I can get there in about 40 minutes. But it’s a quiet little space adjacent to a large vacation lake full of pontoon boats and jet skis water lice and I can usually sit there and drink my V8 or water or whatever all by myself. Except for the birds and turtles and an occasional deer coming down to take a drink. Sometimes I encounter power boats in the canals and I have to admit, I usually feel just a bit virtuous that I’m operating under my own power, not petroleum. But, to their credit, the powerboat folks often act a little envious of me and my little boat. Like, “maybe *we* should be doing more of what *she’s* doing. It’d be *good* for us.” Maybe I’ll convert some of them yet. When I first started hanging around at Houghton Lake 27 years ago, I was one of a very few walkers. Now there are gazillions of walkers. So there’s hope.

I didn’t see either powerboats or deer this morning. I encountered only one turtle and it was mostly underwater. It was hot, maybe it didn’t need to sun itself? I dunno. There was a big dead tree hanging out over the water close to The End of The Canal. I didn’t think much of it except that I needed to avoid it. As I got very close, I was startled to see a strategically placed nest right almost on the end of it with a black and white bird on it. I startled the bird too and it flew away. I stopped at The End of The Canal for just five minutes or so. I drank my V8 and rinsed out the can. When I paddled back out, I made a wide berth around the dead tree with its black and white bird. It didn’t fly away again.

Maybe the GG will send me a jpg or gif of his gps trail up to Bear Lake. Or maybe not.

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