I sit here at my IBM Trackpoint keyboard with a fairly bad case of bronchitis. Gah.
But I had a great first-run-o-the-season the past weekend with my kayak on a local damsite lake.
Beeline from the boat ramp about a mile to one of the 8' tubes under 144th street and into the calm shallows. Gently paddling upstream a bit, watching large and small dragonflys hover and dart. A hawk dove straight toward me to pluck a huge dragonfly out the air, perhaps 15' right in front of me. Waycool, and especially since the attack/capture was completely silent!
A bit further upstream, still surrounded by broad low waterlogged meadows, I got a couple glimpses of I think 4 deer bounding away from me through copses of trees maybe one hundred yards away. And on multiple occasions I got to within maybe 20 yards of 2 or 3 ducks, and they'd fly off, quacking noisily. Scolding me for invading their territory?
It was a bit surprising how jumpy the deer and ducks were, as I make it an intentional point to be as silent, slow, and stealthy as possible.
As I progressed upstream, eventually the waterway narrowed so much as to make it difficult to paddle, and I began thinking about backing up to some spot wide enough to turn around, when suddenly I felt something cold and wet franticly spazzing about inside the kayak opening, bouncing around off my right hip. I barely righted the kayak from tipping over just as the frog found his way out and to safety. Hard telling who was more startled, me or the frog. Woof!
