After our picnic lunch and about a half hour of relaxing, we headed back out on the water. We had close to a few hours of paddling to do in order to return to the boat launch at the campground, so we cut short our exploration of Floodwood Pond. When we return, we plan to check out the eastern part of Floodwood.
Below is Brody, guiding my way on the water, keeping his "daddy" in view.
As we came around the east side of the island on Floodwood, Brody was checking out signs of campers-- towels hanging on a line, kids' voices.
Here is a pretty view looking northwest from the east side of the island on Floodwood.
Hmmm... I was hoping to show you the abandoned railroad tracks in this photo, but it's more difficult to see than I thought. If you can see a raised bed about 1/3 of the way up the photo, that's where the tracks are. This is on the west side of Floodwood.
My husband took the camera long enough to get a shot of Brody with his Doggles on. They are a bit crooked, but he doesn't seem to mind. He kept them on long enough to get some fans who were also paddling. He's becoming a star-- we had 2 different groups of people say hello and ask if they could take Brody's photo. I'm sure the Doggles had something to do with it!
When we had almost reached the creek to paddle back into Rollins Pond, I thought I saw a dead baby turtle in the water far from shore. It was floating, not swimming. (But what do I know about baby turtles??) I felt bad for it, and wanted to see if he was really dead or just resting.... Sure enough, when I picked him up, he poked his head out all the way as well as his feet, and started scrambling around in my hand. He was very quick for such a little guy. I was just happy he wasn't dead! Apparently he was resting. I got a few photos of this painted turtle before we gently returned him to the water where he could continue his adventures.
At the entrance to the creek, I took more photos of the beautiful wild irises:
Along the creek, paddling upstream, I did not take any photos. The current was strong in some spots, making stopping for a photo impossible. It took some muscles to get back up the creek due to the rocks and tree stumps creating hazards that required lots of steering and paddling. But it was fun, not dangerous, and we felt a sense of accomplishment when we once more reached Rollins Pond.
In the northwestern corner of Rollins Pond, a creek flows in from Rock Pond. Here is the culvert which the creek flows through into the pond. NOW you can see the abandoned railroad tracks I spoke of earlier in this post.
I took a few more close-ups of the culvert with the creek's water flowing. This one is my favorite of the 4 or 5 I shot that day:
Below is a photo of Rollins Pond looking south from the area where the culvert is:
Brody was happy we were greeted by a family of black ducks once we got closer to the boat launch.
We were happy too, since the only other wildlife we saw were the loons. But, that is to be expected in an area where there are lots of campers and lots of paddlers on the water. I'm sure very early morning would yield better wildlife viewing.
We thoroughly enjoyed our paddle on Rollins and Floodwood Ponds and plan to go back in the future and hopefully reach a few of the other ponds as well.
I'll leave you with another photo of Brody-- this pose and shot are almost becoming an icon, I think!
Happy Kayaking!