Lake Catherine State Park - Oct 2006

Mom, Dad and I went to Lake Catherine last weekend. It was beautiful. We were about a week shy of having peak fall color, but it was still gorgeous. We had a rocky start to the trip with a blowout on the trailer. We were around the pastures of Mooringsport when it happened. I found out that my car jack just won't work very well on a slope. I have AAA, but took a chance on flagging a passing truck down. It turned out that the guys worked for the gas company and were on their way home to Oklahoma from south LA. They were quite nice, got the trailer jacked up and the new tire put on within 45 minutes. So, we got packed back up and headed on to the lake.

Saturday morning we went into Hot Springs hoping to find a tire. We looked for about 3 hours and nobody had that size tire. We gave up and went back to camp. I got the kayak rigged and went out on the lake for about three hours. It was a great afternoon to be out on the lake. A cool breeze blew out of the northeast and the sky was such a beautiful blue. I took lots of pictures, and I put the photos that I took in my webshots album. So I will only post a few here.

The lake was beautifully decked in reds, yellows and greens. I really think that Lake Catherine has some of the prettiest display of fall color in the region.

There were lots of ducks and geese. I didn't see but three blue herons while there. I did get a nice picture of a blue hiding from me in a tree.

The sides of the lake had lots of turtles laying around. You can see this was an area that was "Turtle City"! I don't think I have ever seen so many turtles in one place ever!

A little further down I went into a cove where I saw a really big turtle with several smaller ones. And then another turtle pulled up on the branch and they way they were looking at each other make it seem as if these guys were going to come to blows!After getting back from my paddle, we went up to buy some firewood. I got the yellow pages out and made a list of numbers of tire places in the region. I got a wrecking/tire company in Malvern on the second try and they had the correct tire for my popup. That was a relief...I would not have liked driving all the way back to Shreveport without a spare.

Sunday morning when we awoke, the world was in a fog. Everything was white. It made for some nice picture taking, so I have lots of them on my webshots page.
I just happened to catch the boy fishing as the fog was lifting out on the lake. The picture below is a panoramic that I made by stitching two pictures together. I think it is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
Sunday after going to get the spare replaced, I was able to get out paddling before we left. I found this goose who was taking his bath.

He was enjoying his bath but when I got too close he started posturing... making sure that I knew he was boss I suppose... I love how the white goose appears to be bowing before the boss! And look how he is eyeing me...
I left the geese and paddled back to the waterfall. I was walking up to take a last picture of the falls when whoops...my foot slips and I go down into the water...camera and all. Needless to say that kind of put a damper on things. I think the Nikkor 28-105 macro lens is ruined. I'm not sure if anyone can take it apart to dry it out or not, but it filled with water. So I will probably have to replace it. The D70 body got wet too, but I have insurance on it through 2007, so I hope that it can be fixed. I thought I would give it a week or so to dry out and give it a try before I take it in. What a bad time to mess my camera up! Now I'll probably have to go to Miami in a week and a half with just the Canon. Oh well...I'll have to borrow Jim's camera every now and then...ok brother???

Well, it's late and I'd best get some sleep. The next report will be after we get back from Miami November the 15th. Looking forward to seeing my brother Jim and Ann his wife and visiting the keys for the first time.

Remember if you want to check out more of my pictures from Lake Catherine, go to my Webshots album!

'til then...Happy Kayaking,
Cathy

Daisy State Park - Lake Greeson - Oct 14

Missy, Little Bit and I went to Daisy State Park on Lake Greeson Friday evening. It was dark when I got to the campsite so it was not too fun backing in to this spot on the hill. Needless to say, I got out and checked to make sure I was backing up ok many times. It took me about an hour to set up camp by myself. But I managed to get everything set up and did not even hurt my back.

Saturday was a beautiful day and I asked my neighbor across the drive to help me take my kayak down to the water. There was no way for me to take it myself since the water was very low and there was a precipitous 2-5 ft drop to the beach from the hill. So after my nice neighbor came by and helped me to bring my kayak down to the lake, we went kayaking.

It was Missy's second time to be out in the kayak and she was quite active. She would go from one side to the other looking at things on the shore. And when all 24 lbs of her little body went from one side to the other...I had to make sure to lean to the opposite side. She can certainly cause the kayak to roll a bit!

But she had a good time, I think...at least she looks like she's having fun... I decided to go across from the campsite to a fairly large cove and when I got into the cove...

I saw a flash of large wings and...

An eagle swooped out of the trees and circled in front of us.

His mate was in a tree on the right side of the cove and off they flew. They were never close enough to get a picture of both of them at one time. Quite an exciting thing to see. And because I had both dogs in the boat, I had not brought my good camera with me...so I guess I was lucky to get pictures at all with Mike's little A85 Canon. It doesn't have a good telephoto lens. But with both dogs in the kayak, I did not want to carry an expensive camera, so I made do with his...

After they disappeared from sight, we meandered down the Lake. I guess Little Bit got tired. He curled up in the front of the kayak and went to sleep while Missy kept guard.


After about an hour and a half, I found an island. So, I landed and let them have a run about for a bit. They had lots of fun smelling all of the new smells. On the mainland across from where we were I saw a flock of geese. They were having fun posturing. We got in the boat and headed closer so I could take a picture, but they decided to take flight. Missy and Little Bit really liked that part.

And even though this picture is blurry...I still like it, so I am putting in the blog anyway...

I decided to head back to camp after that. As I paddled back, I thought it was cute how they rested their heads on the boat...like they were too tired to even hold them up... LOL.

Little Bit looks like he is ready to abandon ship here as we see our only blue heron.

After we got back to camp I put Missy and Little Bit in the trailer. Little Bit kept his eyes on me.

As did Missy...

I decided that it was a good time to take a short nap, so we curled up in the trailer and snoozed for a while. After I woke up, we went for a nice long walk on the shoreline. As the sun was getting that afternoon reddish glow, you could see the autumn colors coming out in the trees across from one of the coves.

It was a nice relaxing trip for me. I did not really eat meals on time, read a lot and hiked quite a bit. I was not certain that I would like camping alone, but with the dogs to keep me company, it was ok. Not something I want to do all the time though... I really prefer having conversations with those who can talk back...

Well, until next time... Happy kayking.
Cathy

Red River - Oct 06

We decided to go somewhere different Sunday afternoon. Don suggested Red River, and so that is where we went. We put in at the Stoner Street Launch and went towards downtown.


The channel is pretty wide, but there were huge boats out there...all kinds...speedboats, fishing boats, big cabin cruisers, skeedoos...and we were the little fish. Lots of nice big waves gave us a nice ride! :-) I swear many of them were going 80 miles an hour. The skeedoos really scared me. They were going so fast and bouncing over the waves so high, I was afraid that they were going to come off the little things. This guy seemed like he was enjoying himself riding around at top speed all by himself. Although, at least he slowed down as he went past us...mighty nice of him...


The river itself is a lot cleaner than it used to be. It is not blood red like it was when I was growing up. All of the locks and dams that they have put in have helped to slow the erosion of the soil, so now it is just a dirty brown instead of that brilliant red.


The sides of the river were filled with egrets although most flew away when any boat drove by. We came upon one that just was not going to move. It sat there and I was able to get a fairly close picture of it and when we came back down the river it was still there. Kinda strange behavior considering all of the others flew away before we were 100 ft from them.


As we passed all of the Casios we could smell the cigarette smoke that they vent out. It really stunk!


I wish that I could have gotten closer to the boat's paddlewheel, but they had signs and ropes making folks stay away. So, I only got one picture that I liked of the wheel.


To get the paddlewheels up the river to downtown Shreveport, they had to go under the old railway bridges. So they had to repair the rotating bridge span to move the track out of the way to get the boats in their docks. I have always liked rusty things...so I took a picture of the wheels that turn the track.



We made it to the I20 bridge and then decided to head on back. After we got past the old train bridge, I looked up and a red tailed hawk was circling above me. He sure was eyeing me... I guess I was messing up his afternoon fishing run.




It is probably pretty easy for the birds to catch fish on the river because they were jumping out of the river all over the place doing flips in front and behind us.

Well, I guess that was it for this paddle. We had a good time. I think if we go on the Red again, we may go out of Coushatta...maybe there wouldn't be so many big boats. And for all of you who want to see how I look now I've lost 47 lbs, I uploaded a new profile picture...as seen below.

Only one month to go before we get to go down to see my brother Jim and his wife Ann...we are really looking forward to it.

I don't know where we will go next weekend to paddle. In two weeks, I head up to Lake Greeson for a weekend of camping and paddling. I wanted to try paddling it as it is a nice clear lake and not very far away. Two weeks after that I head to Lake Catherine...on of my favorite places to camp in autumn. I figured I had better get in lots of camping this month since November is Miami time!

Well until next time... Happy kayaking!
Cathy