Francis Lake 2013, Part Two

Time to finish describing our first paddle of the 2013 season on Francis Lake.  It was almost 2 weeks ago already.  The weather did not cooperate last weekend with rain and wind.  This week we have snow on our deck one morning and we've had frost 3 nights in a row!  It's supposed to warm up later this week.  I sure hope so!

I left off last time with us paddling out of the eastern lobe of the lake beyond the esker.  It was time to head back to the put-in/take out. On the way, I stopped for photos of course.

I found the contrast between the dead, dull tan/brown grasses and the vibrant green pine needles along with the blue sky intriguing enough for a quick shot as we passed by.

Here is Brody keeping an eye on his daddy who is too far ahead of us in Brody's opinion!

I took these next two photos using a setting on my camera which gives everything a bit of an unnatural color vibrancy.  It turned reds to orange, but deepened the trees reflections in the water in the photo of Brody.

On the photo below, it turned the dull browns and tans of the grasses on the bank a bit more interesting in color as well as making the sky and water even more vibrant than they already were.

As my husband paddled on, I changed the settings again for a sepia-toned one of him:

And then a black and white of the trees:

Pretty soon I had almost caught up with him and thought this image as he waited for me was worth capturing!  You'd think he was trying to hide, wouldn't you?

And.... there he is, hanging out, waiting for me to quit fiddling around with the camera so we could finish our paddle!

There was a breeze but the sun was quite strong.  Brody is panting a little as he surveys the lake looking for geese, ducks or maybe a loon or two:

Approaching the put-in/take-out, we see the loons diving.  Brody is quite aware of them diving and surfacing.  I got a few photos but they were far away or were diving under as I snapped a shot.  They also have learned how to avoid us humans (and canines!) in our boats.  They dive and swim in the opposite direction that we travel in.  The next time we look for them, they are way behind us.

We are always happy to see loons on the lakes we paddle.  Our feeling is that the lake must be pretty healthy if the loons are hanging out there.  Hopefully, there will be a baby loon later this summer.

I'll end with one more photo of Brody.  We're almost back to land and he knows it.  He enjoyed his first paddle of 2013 and so did we!

Happy Kayaking!  Get out and enjoy if you are able!