Kayaking with the Manatees

In February Jason and I took a wonderfully relaxing two-week vacation. We got to do many exciting things between our week in South Carolina and our week in Florida, but kayaking with the manatees was one of the highlights of the trip.  (I'll post more about the rest of the trip later).

We went to Crystal River with my mom and our Florida friend, Beth.  We each rented single kayaks from Crystal River Kayak Company.  Mom and Beth rented sit in kayaks and Jason and I opted for sit on top kayaks.  We've been wanting to try out the sit on tops anyway and we ended up loving them so will be purchasing two of the in the near future.

We kayaked through the springs and up to King's Bay. It was a very windy day so we didn't venture too far into the actual bay though you can paddle up to the restaurants on the bay and stop in for lunch before continuing paddling around. The wind made the water very choppy, so staying in the spring areas gave us more chances to see the manatees.

There were a  lot of them there and it was very cool to see them swimming right underneath the kayaks at random intervals.  Once in a while, a big manatee nose would surface right next to us! Most of them were resting in the roped off areas but we still were able to get a good look at them.

We also saw a ton of pipefish, an osprey flying overhead, an eagle and lots of other native birds and fish.  It was a wonderful experience and I'd love to go back on a less windy day and do the 4-hour outing to include lunch in the bay and take my good camera for some better photos.

All photos can be seen here, but my favorites I'll post below.

Solo Fall Kayaking

Tuesday late afternoon I took my first solo kayak outing at Lake Jericho. There was only one other kayaker on the lake and he was fishing. I think it was the most peaceful trip I've ever taken out there. It was nice to paddle around leisurely and watch the wildlife. I found that slow paddling and waiting and watching yields animals that don't even know or care that you are there.

A video posted by Christy Mesker (@christymesker) on Nov 3, 2015 at 2:28pm PST

Before I even got to the lake I ran into a minor detour. This little guy got out of the farm fencing and was just hanging out in the road. He finally moooooooved on and I could pass by. I was sure to tell the park worker that he was out and she informed me they were trying to contact the farm owner, so apparently he'd been hanging out for a while.

I was surprised to see turtles still out and about with how cool it was, but I suppose they try to absorb as much sun as possible while they have the chance.

And then I came upon this small hawk. I couldn't get a great photo of him, but it's clear enough to see what he is.  I came across another very large bird in a tree but it hopped onto the ground and out of the tree before I could tell if it was an eagle or a vulture.

I'm hoping to get back out again before I have to shelve the kayak for the winter.

Kayaking Shelby Lake

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day in the mid 70's with the sun shining bright and a nice breeze blowing all day.  Christina and I decided to try out a new kayaking spot in Shelbyville, Ky called Shelby Lake.  It's a small 20 acre fishing lake in a Clear Creek Park with a tiny campground, volleyball nets, hiking trails and lots of wooded areas with picnic tables to hike or boat to and pull out to relax and have a bite to eat.

Once you get to the end of the lake you can continue on for quite a while on Clear Creek, which feeds Shelby Lake. We went as far as the highway overpass and then turned around and we paddled for about two hours.  We will go back earlier in the day where we can paddle further and pull out at one of the picnic areas and have lunch.

Here are a few photos of our expeditions. The rest can be seen on my Kayaking Lake Shelby Flickr album - more will be added with upcoming visits.

Kayaking Floyds Fork at The Parklands

This past weekend we tried some moving water kayaking at The Parklands of Floyds Fork.  We put in at Creekside and paddled to the Fisherville takeout. The water, running at 94 CFS, was up just enough for us to do a four mile run without having to walk the kayaks over low areas along the way. We did get stuck a few times but were able to scoot ourselves over the shallow areas enough to keep going.  There were many areas of fast moving water followed by areas of flat water we had to paddle until we got to the next moving water area.  We even timed it where we floated under the train bridge just as a train was passing overhead.

We loved trying something other than the flat water lakes that we have been to since we purchased the kayaks. The Sea Eagle SE330s did great, even with the shallow rocked areas we came upon, and is a great boat for this type of water. I almost flipped once due to going down a small rapid sideways, but managed to save myself at the last minute.  Christina, in her hard shell Perception Swifty kayak, wasn't so lucky and dumped out just around the corner from our takeout spot.  Her boat filled up with water so we had to get her dumped out before continuing on. It was a tricky area with fast moving water and a tree in the way, so I'm surprised she is the only one that went overboard!  She managed to save everything except for her sunglasses, which are now somewhere at the bottom of the creek.  Win some, lose some!

I didn't feel safe taking my camera on this trip since I don't have a waterproof case for it, but I did get some great photos with my Samsung Note 3 phone, which I do have a waterproof case for.  You can view the photos on my Flickr account. I will be adding to this album once the water is high enough to go again, which at this point may not be until next spring, it just depends on how much rain we get through the rest of the season.

Jason in the Shallows

Watching the Train Above

Pulling Over After Christina Went Overboard

Zooming Down the Creek

Kayaking Guist Creek Lake

Yesterday we decided to try out a new kayaking location with the McDowell's in Shelbyville, Ky called Guist Creek Lake.  It is a 317 acre lake primarily used for fishing, but it also has a water skiing area to the left of the marina and a great kayaking area to the right of the marina, all in a no wake zone.  There is also a campground and Jon boat rentals.

We got a later start than we wanted to because a storm rolled through that morning, but we were launched and on the water by 11:30 and paddled around for a few hours.  We stuck to the right of the marina in the less busy, fishing area and explored a few coves.  It was pretty windy and we had to paddle back against the wind so we didn't go too far on our first trip out.

It was a very nice lake to paddle around or fish in and I'm sure we will go back again.  The water was fairly clear given all the rain we have had for the last several weeks and was a nice 85 degrees. We saw the usual Great Blue Herons, water turtles, a woodpecker and a few fish during our outing. We got some fun in the sun and got to visit a new place - a very good Sunday!

Father's Day Paddling

We spent another hour at Lake Jericho with the kayaks on Father's Day. This was our second trip out and we both did much better than the first time out.  We are quickly adjusting to the Sea Eagle kayaks.  Before I loaded up any gear in mine I took it out and tried to tip it over just to see how much it really took to tip. I can tip it, but I have to try really, really hard to get it to dump me into the water.  Knowing that helped me relax a little more with the wobble since now I know it will only go so far before the pontoons catch the boat from flipping over.  With that being known, I had a much more comfortable paddle this time. Jason also did much better after making some seat adjustments from the last trip out.

Jason Paddling in Front of Me

We only did an hour again, but it is so fun!  We ended up buying an annual pass for Lake Jericho for $50 (otherwise it costs $6/person each trip).  Since it's only a couple of miles up the street we figure we'll go there the most and when we only plan to get an hour or so of paddling in.

On this outing we once again saw many Great Blue Herons. They actually let you get fairly close to them before they fly down the bank to resume fishing.  We saw one spear a fish and eat it about 10 feet away from us. We saw a baby snapping turtle sunning on a log in the water.  We paddled into a shallow cove and saw a huge carp eating algae. He was in such shallow water his back was out of the water.  He was a good foot and a half long and zoomed right past my kayak when I startled him.  We also saw a very large snake.  Jericho is known for having lots of water snakes so we're always careful to be on the lookout.  I'm not sure what kind of snake it was, likely a water moccasin, but we did't get close enough to find out. Once I spotted him I went the other way.

I wish I had photos of all of these sightings, but still being a newbie I'm afraid to keep my phone with me in case it gets wet.  But today we have waterproof cases being delivered so I'll hopefully be able to capture some of these sightings.  Once I get really comfortable I'll get brave enough to bring my actual camera with the zoom lens that I can keep in the dry bag until I need it.  For now phone photos will have to do!  We're going back out tonight so hopefully I'll get to try out the new case and actually be able to snag some pics of all of the wildlife we see on our kayak adventures!

Last night Jason bought us some more accessories for our trips, including a kayak anchor. This will be great for parking in the shade for a rest or for when I want to lounge in the sun or take a dip in the water to cool off.  We also added a mini flashlight, some flat bungee cords, hand sanitizer and a few other miscellaneous items that may come in handy.

The photo below is a partial view of the inside of my kayak.  I actually have a lot more room than this because the dry bags and cooler you see in front of me are usually pushed way up into the front of the boat, but I had just gotten into the bag to get my phone out for a photo.  I also have quite a bit of storage room behind my seat since the seat goes in just past the middle of the boat.  Plenty of room to load up for a day trip!

My Sitting "Space"

Maiden Kayak Voyage

I've been wanting to try kayaking for quite some time now and Jason got on board with me recently. Now that we are camping more, and usually near lakes, we decided to bite the bullet and give kayaking a try.  At first we were looking at beginner hard shell kayaks. Wow, there are so many to choose from!  From sit-ins to sit-ons, cheap to extremely expensive, recreational to touring.  After joining a few kayak groups on Facebook we were informed about Sea Eagle inflatable kayaks. So we did some research and watched some YouTube videos and decided that would be the best route for us to go so we purchased two of the SE 330 Pro Solo Kayaks.

We chose the inflatables for several reasons:

1. They get great reviews and many people prefer them over hard shells.
2. They are extremely portable (it was going to cost us around $1000 to have a roof rack and kayak mount installed on Big Nasty that would work while pulling the fifth wheel).
3. They only weigh 26 pounds and fold up to fit in a bag so no need to have 2 people to get it off the truck. A simple foot pump will have it ready to go in about 10 minutes.
4. The model we chose was almost half the price of the hard shell one we were looking at.
5. We figured these would be a great starter boat for us to see how much we like it before we put more money into a hard shell (if we do choose to go that route down the road).

The kayaks arrived yesterday so we inflated them in the house to check them out.  We were going to go on our maiden float that evening, but it rained all evening.  So instead we hit up the sporting goods aisle at Wal-Mart and purchased some accessories - dry bags, lunch coolers, gear clips, rope, etc.

Today was nice and overcast and storms weren't supposed to come in until this afternoon.  So we took an extended lunch break and headed up to Lake Jericho a few miles up the road from us.  There is a boat ramp there or a dock that we can launch from.  We used the boat ramp today, but I think the dock would be easier - my exit was not very graceful!

We had a great first time out. We only paddled for an hour, but I can feel it in my arms and torso already.  What a great upper body and core workout this is going to be!  And the nature! We saw several Great Blue Herons, many water turtles, a few fish and what we think was a wood duck. 

The Sea Eagles were pretty awesome.  They seemed wobbly but I think that's just because we aren't used to them.  They are supposed to be fairly difficult to tip over, but we didn't push our luck trying. (They kind of give you the same feeling you get when you lean back too far in a swivel office chair and when you get so far back you think you're going to fall backwards, but you don't.) We got the hang of paddling and turning around pretty quickly, but being out of shape and never kayaing before, we tired out pretty quickly.  Arms and abs will be sore tomorrow!  But I can see this being a great time and a great workout all in one!  Once I get the hang of it a little better and get more comfortable with the boat I'll start bringing a camera with me - I'll probably purchase a waterproof digital camera at some point - but for now I was only brave enough to pull my phone out of the dry bag for one quick shot while on the water just off the boat ramp.  More adventures in kayaking to come!

Inflating the Kayaks in our Living Room - Buddy is confused

Preparing to Launch

The View from my Kayak

My Setup and New Sun Hat  ;)