Beaver Lake again!

It's been a while since I last took a kayak to Beaver Lake or Elk Lake. This kind-of hourglass-shaped lake is a sheltered place to paddle, and it's pretty popular in summer. That makes it a good winter paddle for our group. The other times I come here is on days that I'm volunteering as a naturalist in the Nature Centre. It's nice to show up early with a little inflatable and spend an hour noodling around the lake before opening the Nature Centre.
Today I saw more boats on the lake than ducks -- and that counts the mallard with her nine fuzzy baby ducklings. There were sit-on-top kayaks, Pelicans, a couple of canoes, and some short recreational kayaks, all buzzing around the lake. Most fun of all was seeing a truck in the parking lot with the back full of boat -- two short rec kayaks pointing backwards and one sea kayak pointing forward to the sky over the truck cab.
So it was definitely summer at Beaver Lake: lots of boats, people picnicking, and other people running through the beach area on the jogging trail. Also, the water was green with a bit of an algae bloom.
Before going on the lake, I sent a SPOT ok message while talking about my gear with a jogger. It was a good day! And the Nature Centre has a new exhibit... a river otter, stuffed and mounted. Nice to get a close-up look at an otter.

Never Know What You'll See When You Go For A Walk

Pop quiz! What's this?

There's no prize, and you'll probably figure it by the end of the post. And no, it's not the zero-g toilet from a Soviet-era space capsule, as someone suggested.

Louise and I went for walk along The Gorge this weekend. We were too busy to go kayaking, as we have been a lot so far this year. Some kayakers we are.
But at least we were walking along our local kayaking route, so there was that.
And we saw some of the usual things we see while kayaking along here: herons...

...ducks...

...and swans.


Then we saw something that you don't want to see as a kayaker, namely a large chunk of the Saanich Fire Department stopping at a small beach with their rescue boat.

Fortunately, there was no emergency, only an equipment check-out and practice session.

A little push...

...and the rescue boat was in the water...

...while the "victims" prepared themselves...

...to be rescued.


The swans were not perturbed.

Unexpected Visitors

Louise and I are struggling to get into paddling after our long lay-off over the fall and winter. But one thing guaranteed to help get a person back into paddling shape is to get out and, you know, paddle.

This morning, we had a bit of free time so we rolled the kayaks down the hill and put in for a quickie up The Gorge.

The air still has a bit of a bit of a chill to it, and some rain and wind is due in tomorrow, but the morning sun was bright and warm as it heralded the arrival of spring. Soon. We hope.

As we headed out, this paddled by. I may be mistaken, but it sure looks like a hollowed-out log. If it isn't, it's sure built to look like one. We did not get a chance to ask the paddler about it, alas.


With the current not looking too bad, we decided to paddle under the Tillicum Bridge.

There was a slight current going under, but a few moments later when we turned to go back, the current's speed had increased substantially. It wasn't enough to be a concern or worry that we couldn't return, but it was a bit of a workout, and another reminder that conditions on the water do not remain static.

Across The Gorge from our launch point, we spotted a pair of swans hanging out with some ducks. I've been noticing this pair hanging out here for a few weeks now and I'm hoping that they're going to nest in the area. They didn't pay us much attention as we paddled by.


This merganser didn't pay us much attention either.


Paddling up The Gorge, we approached the bridge at Admirals Road. (The road across the bridge is Admirals Road, but the bridge is called Craigflower bridge. Go figure.) Take a good look at the bridge -- by this time next year it will be replaced by a brand new bridge. Construction is slated to start in July and in addition to causing traffic chaos in the neighbourhood, it may put a kink in any summer paddles into Portage Inlet.


But we had no such worries today. We passed under the bridge into the inlet, avoiding the lines of the few herring fishermen aligned along the bridge's railings.


We weren't having a comfortable paddle. We'd forgotten one of our cardinal rules, which is "No eggs for breakfast on a paddling day!" The eggs, although delicious, were putting in a repeat performance. Not so yummy the second time. I was also feeling stiff and sore in the boat today. Just one of those paddles when you and the boat aren't communicating very well.
We checked out the Portage Inlet swans at their usual spot....

...as well as a duck that paddled by.


With both of us feeling a little off, we headed back to our launch point.


As we landed and began packing, I looked up and saw that the first two swans we had encountered at the start of our paddle had swam across The Gorge to check us out. "Turn around," I said to Louise.

These two were clearly very tame and it seemed like they were begging us for food. One of them was making a chirping-like noise.

They hung around with us for a good ten minutes. Every time I grabbed my camera dry bag, they moved in closer hoping that I was digging out something for them to eat. Finally they realized we had nothing for them, and they continued on their way. And we prepared to push our kayaks up the hill.



Trip length: 7.21 km
YTD: 11.40 km
More pictures are here.

And So It Begins

We almost started off the kayaking year last Sunday morning, but two things stopped us. One, Louise had a slight ankle injury and wanted to rest it for a day or two, and two, the weather at our proposed launch time was -2, cloudy and breezy. For some reason, relaxing on the couch in our pajamas enjoying scrambled eggs while three furry cats snuggled up to us seemed liked a much better idea than being out on the cold Gorge in below-zero temps cracking through the ice like little icebreakers.
Yes, we're wimpy kayakers. We've told you that before.
But we could find no excuses to not kayak today, especially when the conditions at launch time were expected to be sunny and warming up quickly. Louise and I dragged the kayaks down to Cadboro Bay for a quick paddle around the bay to get our sea legs back after our long lay off. Paula was supposed to join us, but she was not to be seen on the beach.

Look at that sunshine! Sure looks warm, doesn't it? As it turned out the weathermen underestimated the cool breeze blowing in and how long it would take the cloud to burn off.
We bundled up, and the cool morning gave Louise a chance to try her new Hot Shot paddling gloves, which she liked a lot. On the other hand, I somehow managed to bring two right-handed gloves which made for an, um, interesting fit on my left hand.

Off we paddled, puttering along the south shore of Ten Mile Point.


Louise paddled past some geese that were not the least bit interested in us...

...as we moved into Sheep Cove.


A pair of merganser ducks watched us paddle by.


We paddled past the expensive homes and wondered why you would want a home with a multi-million dollar view, only to keep all your blinds closed.


We returned along the far side of Flower Island....

...and discovered we weren't the only people out on the water today.


Another merganser was hanging out with some harlequin ducks...

...while a black and white goose stood guard.


Heading back to the beach, we saw Mike Jackson and some friends heading out for a paddle around Discovery Island.
Then we saw Paula padding towards us in the little green play boat she acquired last year. (Or did she steal it from Mike? After all, his name is all over it.)

Paddle number one for the year is in the books!


Trip length: 4.19 km
YTD: 4.19 km
More pictures are here.

Bird Sightings on the Red Deer River

This August I had an excellent opportunity to do birdwatching while kayaking in a new place! Here's a google map I made using the SPOT messages I sent while on the Red Deer River.

The first day of four I spent on the river, though the direction of flow was generally heading south from Content Bridge there were several bends in its direction. If I stopped paddling, the current would gradually turn the kayak sideways. I turned round during the late afternoon to look back upstream at the approaching weather front. Over the river, an osprey was soaring and turning. I’m pretty darned sure it was an osprey (Pandion halietus) because its white underside and dark wings were visible against the sky. And as I was watching, it stooped suddenly and plunged down to the river. If it caught a fish, then the fish was too small for me to see without my glasses as the osprey flew away. This was the only time I nearly fell out of my kayak, as I was leaning back to watch the osprey and was abruptly reminded about balance and so on just before tipping.

This photo of an osprey is from the National Geographic website.

A little later, I heard thunder rumbling and turned round again to look at the weather approaching from the north-west. It was thunder, and lightning flashed in the clouds. There was rain falling from a cloud that should take about half an hour to reach me. It was time to find a place to set up camp for the night! Luckily, there was a nice level place above the river shore just at that bend of the river. I pulled up onto the shore, walked across the level ground to another rise, calling out to the cabin that stood there. The fire pit smelled like a fire had been burning yesterday. But no one came out of the cabin. With no one around for me to ask permission, I resolved to  camp here above the high water mark and try to leave no trace.

Quickly, I set up Lila’s tent close to the trees and put my gear inside. Then I moved the kayak higher on the bank and rolled it upside-down. The nearest tree to tie the kayak to was sixty feet away, by the tent. It took using both the throw bag rope and my stern line, but I got that boat tied down! Strong gusts of wind are common and can easily roll a boat around. There were no gusts of wind that night, just lightning, thunder, and rain for the early evening.

Wikipedia had this great photo of an American white pelican like I saw.

On the evening of the second day, I saw a pelican. An American white pelican, or Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, according to the Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. Astonishing! A bird that’s as long from beak to tail as I am tall – well, an inch shorter, but wow! It’s as long as the Mute Swans that we see swimming and nesting in Portage Inlet. At 108 inches of wingspan, a white pelican has wings that are getting close to twice as wide as its length. It flies more quietly than a duck, with great swoops of its wings like a heron. The next morning, it flew past my camp again on its way downriver past Tolman Bridge.

This photo is from the Wikipedia page on cinnamon teal ducks.

The third day, there were ducks galore between Tolman Bridge and Morrin Bridge. Several small ducks looked like cinnamon teal ducks, little round bobbing things that get deftly out of the way when a paddler comes near. They weren’t crowded or in flocks like at Cadboro Bay… these seemed to be living here for the summer and spread out thinly here in the Badlands. 

This was the stretch of the river most isolated from humans, and there were few trees except the scrubby willows where the banks were lower. Some of the bluffs were almost like cliffs, and there were holes like those where cliff swallows or purple martins like to nest. Some holes were bigger, and set apart or entirely alone. Could a few of these holes held Wood duck nests? I’m guessing that some of these bigger holes held owls or maybe bats, though I saw neither. By the time the evenings were dark enough for owls or bats to come out, I was tucked away inside the tent and only came out to feed the mosquitoes. Any reports that mosquitoes are endangered species are not to be believed. This summer I was a participant in a Blood Donor Drive for mosquitoes and gave at least two units of whole blood... one tiny bite at a time.

It's amazing how many bird listings there are in Wikipedia!

On the fourth day there were no birds visible in the foggy morning. A beaver slapped the water, but I couldn’t see him or any birds. Back to bed with a Dick Francis novel and a granola bar. When the fog lifted I got packed up and on the water. I couldn’t identify the few birds visible from the river that day, as they were small dark blurs that didn’t hang around. There were more nesting holes in the bluffs, though, so I’m guessing these were swallows. Was sad not to see any magpies, as they’re pretty and smart birds common in farmland in Central Alberta. Maybe next time.

Spring Has Sprung

Well, hello there.

The picture above was taken with my GoPro camera. I'm sure many of you are wondering just how many pictures your GoPro will take before the battery dies if you've forgetten to turn off the optional monitor before you head out. Thanks to my stupidity well-planned experiment, I can now tell you it's about 90 pictures. And 45 of them will probably be taken before you actually get in the water.
So you might get a couple of nice ones like this before the power craps out. Sigh.

As it happened, I had set up my GoPro and turned it on but got distracted as I had a moment of trouble getting it to work. After a moment it started to work fine, but I neglected to shut off the monitor, and it quickly chewed up the battery power. Ah well, live and learn.

Today, Louise and I were joined by Robyn and Mark of Gecko Paddler. This was their first time paddling in The Gorge and Portage Inlet area, so we gave them the grand tour.


First, we introduced them to what we call the Iron Man.


Further up The Gorge we found a victim from the winter's wind storms. We call it Cormorant Tree because almost every time we paddle here it's usually full of cormorants, but top of the tree is now lying in the mud after having been broken off, probably by the wild storms we've had over the last few weeks.


Next, we passed under the Craigflower Bridge into Portage Inlet.

Enjoy looking at this bridge while you can. Starting July 1, it's coming down. The replacement should be open by Christmas and look like this:

It also means that our paddling options in this area for the summer may be limited as we probably won't be able to get into the inlet due to the bridge construction.



We passed by the swans in their usual nesting spot. I'm guessing we'll see little baby swans playing here in a few weeks.

We headed up Craigflower creek...

...but we found the end is still plugged by a fallen tree, keeping the really cool tunnel 100 metres beyond out of reach, probably for a long time.

The duck and the seagull didn't seem to care about the fallen tree one way or the other.


From Craigflower Creek in the south west corner of the inlet, we headed towards Colquitz Creek at the north east corner, and on the way we passed...

...whatever these are. Centaurs? Avatar people? I don't remember seeing these here before so I'm guessing they're fairly new.

We paddled up the tranquil Colquitz creek, then let the creek's slow easy current pass us back to the inlet.


We headed back down The Gorge to our put in at Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club. Judging by their smiles, I'm guessing Robyn and Mark had a good time. You can read their paddle report here.


Trip Length: 14.62 km
YTD: 25.19 km
More pictures are here.