Kayaking is Positively Enjoyable!
I mentioned in June that I tried kayaking for the very first time, and that I wanted to buy a kayak! Well, I did it! I bought myself a kayak with my birthday money, in fact, I bought two of them so I can always have someone with me! I've gone kayaking two days in a row, and I am positively having a ball!
I found some summertime fun, a way to get some exercise without it feeling like exercise, and was to spend time outdoors! It is also a great way to cool off on these sun shiny hot days!
We've been to two different places, both beautiful! I feel so blessed to have two very different places to go so close to home. Both days I was surrounded by my wonderful family and nature. What more could a gal ask for?
The first place called Echo Dale is only about a five minute drive from my house. It has beautiful yellowy gray clay cliffs, graced with red shale and coal seams and mysterious caves that surround the South Saskatchewan River. It also has two man-made lakes, one for swimming, and one for fishing and kayaking, canoeing and bird watching.
It is a little oasis hidden in the dry prairie grassland. For it being so close, it is a shame I haven't visited more often.
The second place is called Spruce Coulee Lake and is about an hours drive from my acreage. The area is mountain like and is part of The Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park. This area was missed by the glacial ice age and has a very unique and spectacular history and environment. Again, this is surrounded by prairie grasslands and is another oasis!
The lake is surrounded by spruce trees and has a walk in tenting only camping area! Leopard frogs, trout, pelicans, and thousands of minnows are common to the lake. A pelican flew low and between my son's and my kayak. The lake was so quiet and still that we could hear the air flowing between the grand pelican's wings. I didn't get a photo because I am not willing to sacrifice another expensive camera to the underwater camera gods. Now that's another sad upsetting story and let's keep this positive! Guess what the name of my kayak is? Pelican, Quest 100, cool huh?
The lake was very calm and goes about a mile long.
A small leach about 5 centimetres in length and 1 centimetre across was attached to the top of my foot for a few seconds around this area where I got out of my kayak. Surprisingly, I didn't get the willies when I saw it and merely brushed it off!
The fish were jumping, and hiding from fish hooks! As my son and husband took their turns kayaking, I hiked a bit into the spruce forest to photograph some flowers.
The pink flower is our provincial flower...The wild rose...it has a wonderful light scent. The rose hips are used for tea and are rich in vitamins, especially vitamin c.
I love kayaking and my whole family is positively having an enjoyable time! Happy summer everyone!
I especially like the roc pics - and the flowers are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks, the cliffs are so beautiful especially at sunset!
ReplyDeleteI have not been there for YEARS!!! Underwater camera gods???? Oh dear, I don't know if I would want to know ... I'm forever taking my camera's in the canoe and I always have a wet/dry bag for them ... not that they are ever in the bag! LOL!
ReplyDeleteLOL! My first Canon camera met the underwater gods, on a tragic pontoon boat trip...the boat took on water and my camera bag floated out to the middle of the lake as I was rescuing my dad's fishing tackle box that held 20 years of tackle. Some people on the beach jumped on their seadoos to rescue the camera, but it was too late. Water got into the camera and lenses, and the manufacturer told us not to even bother sending it in for repairs. I was so depressed for about a week. It was my first camera with lenses, something I had dreamed about for years. We were about to go on a trip and I was upset that I wouldn't have a camera. The day before the trip, my husband came home with a new camera and lenses. He used his birthday money that he had been saving for a couple of years that he was saving to buy a roping machine ...a heal-o-matic... Boy was I touched and surprised ! I haven't stepped foot on my father-in law's boat since then. There for a while, whenever I went on my dad's boat, I would put my camera and bag into a big black garbage bag and put my waterproof bag around the case. Now I am not so cautious, but I am not sure I want to take my "baby" on the kayak! Maybe I will buy a cheap waterproof camera or just take my cell phone with me?.?....?
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