Lake Ouachita State Park - March 07

Mom, Dad and I headed up to Lake Ouachita State Park last Friday. We got to leave early since I had put in lots of OT lately helping to get our new website up and running. It was really nice to get up to the lake in time to get set up and in the kayak by 4 PM. The weather was great for my first paddle in a few weeks. The water was still about 50 degrees, but the sun was warm and the temperature was around 65. The water was very still so there were some nice reflections on the water of the sky.
I absolutely love the Werner bent shaft paddle that I got. It is so light and I am able to paddle for long periods of time with no pain in my thumb. The paddle made a nice prop to showcase the sun on the water. The coots looked like the only bird I would see that evening, and every time I got a little close off they flew! So, I called it a night and went on back to camp hoping that the next day would be nice and warm so I could kayak a lot. Mom and Dad had already eaten by the time I got back to camp, so as Dad made a fire, I ate and took some pictures. Can you see my kayak tacky light? Pretty cool huh? It was thundering and lightning by the time we went inside. I got the DVD player ready and we watched the Charlie Chan on Broadway movie. Mom and Dad had never seen a Charlie Chan movie before we went to Lake Greeson last month. But they found that they are pretty good clean entertainment and they have quite a few laughs too. After the movie was over it was 10 and we went to sleep. I had really had a hard week at work and I slept so hard that I didn't even hear the storm that we had during the night.

After Mom cooked the waffles for breakfast, I went down to the water and headed out in the kayak. I had a map of the lake so I was hoping that I would not get lost. I paddled for about three hours. It was so good to get out and just paddle until I could not paddle any more. There was a slight wind to battle coming back up to our little inlet, so by the time I got back to the campsite I was pretty beat.

The lake was about 50 degrees and my feet were just too cold even with the sunshine on them. So, we ate lunch then we got in the car and headed in to Hot Springs. I wanted to go to the kayak shop and get some water socks. I found the water socks looked at a few kayaks and then we headed further in to Hot Springs and went to a little shopping mall so Mom and Dad could get some walking in. We shopped for about a hour and then headed back to the park.

When we got back to the campsite, I got my socks on and went to paddle. I wanted to explore the other side of the little inlet that we were in and I was hoping to find some birds who would not fly away when I got close. Down at the very end of the inlet I found a pair of ducks. I looked them up when I got home. They are Northern Shovelers. They winter in the southern US. Click on the picture to make it bigger and look at the bill on those heads! They definitely named them correctly! I paddled up the south side of the inlet and into a small stream that comes in to the Lake. I found another bird that I had never seen. It just pretty much ignored me so I was able to get really close to take a picture of it. I looked it up when I got home and found out that it is a Northern Flicker. It is a kind of woodpecker and it also winters in the southern US. After that I went back to camp so I could cook our traditional grilled steak dinner. After we ate and washed up, we watched another Charlie Chan movie (I have all of the Warner Oland Charlie Chan movies) and then turned our clocks ahead an hour and went to bed. I slept great again that night.

Rain was threatening again on Sunday, so we packed up after breakfast. I let Mom and Dad finish the packing and I went for a last paddle. I wish I lived on a lake. I would paddle every day! I stayed out for about an hour then headed back to the ramp to load the kayak. Mom just did not feel like another sandwich so we left around lunch and stopped in Hot Springs for our noon meal. We had rain on and off until we got to the state line, but the trailer pulled great. I'm glad I got the Weight Distribution Hitch. It made a real difference in the way the trailer pulls.

Well, I guess that's it for this time. I'm not sure when my next trip will be. We'll go somewhere in April, just not sure yet where. I have a few pictures on my webshots album that I did not include here. Click here if you want to go see them.

Cathy