Lakeview Wildlife Management Area, Part One

Hello fellow kayakers waiting for spring!  I know, it's only February.... for Northern New York, that means we have 2 solid months of winter left.  (We really can't count the snow and cold "out" until April and it's even been known to snow here on Mother's Day!)

I am hoping the photo storage issue has resolved itself.  It may have been a Blogger glitch... we'll see how it goes.

Here is Brody, checking out the scenery on beautiful South Sandy Creek, part of Lakeview Wildlife Management Area, which is next to Lake Ontario.  This awesome spot is just off Route 3 at the bridge crossing the creek.  There is a parking lot, an outhouse, a few picnic tables and a trail to walk if you'd like.  The put-in is fairly level, depending on how much water's in the creek.

I have TONS of Lakeview WM photos since we've been there 4 or 5 times.  There are lots of reasons it's one of our favorite spots.  Usually we prefer the "waters less paddled," but this is a popular place that is still in our top three despite the number of paddlers.  It's easy to get to, it has such varied scenery-- the creek spills into ponds and there is an outlet to Lake Ontario-- and because it's protected, we see a lot of wildlife, especially if we get there early enough in the day.

Our latest paddle here was in July 2012. All of the photos, unless noted, were taken during that paddle.  Our daughter and her partner were visiting from Michigan.  Since they own kayaks, we were able to paddle about 4 times during the week they were here.

 Below is a shot of them with my husband, paddling downstream from the put-in.  I love the trees here.  I believe they are alders.  Their bark is dark and their leaves bright shades of green.  Some older/larger ones used to hang completely out over the creek so that it looked like you were paddling through a tunnel of green.  Some of those are now gone, due to very high water one year-- the older trees just couldn't hang on to the eroded banks.  But it is still very pretty as you paddle down the creek. 

The creek is widening out at this bend, and we'll soon be in the marsh area which runs along several of the ponds. It was a perfect day for kayaking!

We took a few photos of our family in front of the dead tree.  Brody watched intently as his daddy maneuvered his kayak to get set up for the photo.

A bit further downstream, the land flattens out more, and there is a huge marsh with numerous channels (some that lead nowhere!) branching off from the creek, and later, branching off the ponds.  Still on the creek, there are spots with barely any current which are shallow enough for these pretty water lilies to grow. Brody likes their scent as much as I do!

As you can see, the creek is wider as we head toward the ponds and Lake Ontario.

Around another bend in the creek, we saw some dead branches above a shorter tree. I followed the flight of a bird crossing in front of us (a football field length away) and got excited-- it looked like an eagle!  He/She landed on the exposed branches, far away from us. But with his white head and tail feathers, there was no doubt about it.  I took photos, but since the eagle is smaller than Brody's ears in the photo above, I won't post any of them.  We were so excited to see the eagle, and even more pleased that our daughter and her partner were there to share the moment with us!

That wasn't the only exciting wildlife viewing of the day.  Check out the photo below.  She blends in perfectly with the reddish brown foliage in the background, but if you look closely at the very center of the photo, you will see her head-- ears up.  Yes, it's a doe, swimming across the creek.  We've seen deer at the water's edge, but this was the first time we saw one swimming.  It took her only seconds to cross the creek (I scrambled for my camera and barely got this one shot off) and climb up onto the bank.  She was gone in less than 15 seconds.

There were many dead tree "sculptures" along the way, as the photo below proves.  We saw many turtles sunning themselves as we paddled by these and other dead branches in the creek. Often a bird or two were also hanging out higher up on the branches.

It's about 3 miles from the put-in to the Lake Ontario outlet, but the great thing about this section of Lakeview Wildlife Management Area is that there are three connecting ponds and several other channels to paddle, heading north.  That means you could spend many hours paddling this section without having to take your boat out of the water.  There aren't many places to pull out along the creek or ponds but the sandbar along Lake Ontario is perfect for a rest and a picnic.

 Here is Brody checking out the farther bank.  I  believe there were bank swallows going into their holes at this spot.  It's interesting to note that the birds make their nest in holes they create at an upward angle so that rain doesn't run into the nest.  We enjoyed watching them fly to the hole then disappear, and evidently, so did Brody!

I'll end part one of the blog on Lakeview Wildlife Management Area with this photo of the ponds area, just before the outlet to Lake Ontario.

Join me here for Part Two where I'll describe more of our paddle and hopefully help you beat the winter blues that have to be setting in for those of us in the Northeast!

Long and Round Ponds 2012, part two

Round Pond is our favorite of the two ponds on this paddle.  It is more secluded and as I mentioned in part one, is not accessible to motorboats, though I suppose a small fishing boat with a motor might be able to slip under the footbridge as we do in our kayaks.

Here is Brody, checking out Round Pond as we entered it from beneath the footbridge.

Here is a representation of the pretty reflections found on Round Pond in the morning.  Round Pond also gets less wind, so the water is usually close to ripple-free until late morning.

This little point of land is near the entrance to Round Pond, where there are many lily pads.

Once on Round Pond, if you turn left and paddle across the pond, you will find the inlet.  It's in the northeast corner of the pond.  Here is Brody, checking out a nice reflection as we head toward the inlet.

And another of those wonderful reflections on Round Pond:

We enjoy paddling the inlet.  It's quiet until you hear the distant sound of water over rocks.  Sometimes it's a rushing sound, but with less water flow, it's more of a bubbling.  But either way, it's a calming sound. 

Along the inlet there are rocks on the banks, and also more Joe-pye blossoms:

The stretch of inlet that is paddle-able is less than a mile.  Once you reach rocks in the stream, you will need to turn around.  I know it looks like it's possible to maneuver around those larger rocks and get past them to another section of flat water, but it's not possible if you want to stay in your kayak.  There are many more rocks under the water's surface and those are the ones that you will get hung up on.  But it's fun to try, since the water is shallow.  (The current is strong enough here at times to turn your boat as you are trying to make your way upstream.)

On the way back-- downstream from the rocks in the inlet, I stopped long enough to take a couple photos of a dead tree whose shape I liked:

I was experimenting with the black and white setting to see if I any of my photos look better in black and white.  So far, I don't think I've done a great job with the black and white composition.  I think most black and whites look better with less in the frame and more contrasts than what I see when we're kayaking.  What do you think?

On past paddles to this area we've seen a muskrat or two and once thought we saw an otter swimming, but only for a second or two, then the elusive rascal went under water and we lost him.  So, we can't be sure it was an otter.


Paddling back to Round Pond on the inlet, this is the view:

We heard some splashing in the water once back on Round Pond and looked out across the pond to see a deer trudging the last few feet to the banks of the pond!  It was out of the water and bounding into the woods before I could pull the camera out of the dry bag.  But that was fun to see, for sure.


Brody enjoyed the lily pads:

He gets excited when there's something in the water.  We're not sure if he thinks he can get out and walk on the lily pads or if he just wants to eat them!

But whatever the case, he really seems to enjoy checking out the blossoms as well as the pads.

This is a set-back on the northern side of Round Pond:

And another great reflection from that area:

And Brody, surveying the set-back with curious doggy wonder!  (And more beautiful reflections)

He very rarely faces me in the kayak, being curious enough that he must see where we are going and what might be happening in front of us.  So, I grab the camera quickly when he turns around.  I held him in place for this shot.

So that I could also get this close up:

Here is another photo of the footbridge, reflections and all, as we head back to Long Pond:

I took many common loon photos, but none came out very well since the loons stayed far away from us.  This is the best of them and shows only one loon, but there were two, fishing together.

Here is the put-in as viewed from the water.  It's a nice, easy, gradual sandy entry-- the type we prefer:

Long Pond and Round Pond are small but beautiful.  Although access is off a dirt road, the road has been well maintained with grating each time we've traveled here.  We were a bit disappointed by the beer cans and trash at the put-in which is not at all usual, unless something has changed in the past year.  (We didn't paddle here in 2011.)  But, all in all, it's still a great place to take a short, quiet paddle.

I'll leave you with one more reflection photo of Long Pond from this trip. 

I hope you're all having a great paddling season!  Please use the reactions check boxes to make a comment if you don't want to type in something.  Thanks for reading, and happy kayaking!

Crooked Creek, part two

OK.  Back to Crooked Creek! Before I continue describing the rest of our trip, I'd like to back-track all the way to the beginning of part one.  Before I took the first photos, before we even had the kayaks off the car, we had a pretty neat experience.  I didn't have the camera out yet, so you'll have to picture this in your mind...

We had just pulled over near the bridge on Route 1.  My husband began untying the straps, and I started transferring our lunch from a cooler to a smaller carrier.  All of a sudden I heard something behind me and turned to catch the back end of a deer as it swerved away from me.  It almost ran right into me!  My husband saw the deer too, but too late to warn me.  The doe veered around the car, then up on the road and walked straight down the middle of the bridge, crossing and going into the woods.  Imagine the photos I could have had...  oh well...

So, we floated back downstream toward the bridge.  These rocks are in the area where the spotted sandpiper was hanging out.  There are places where you'll see both rocks and marsh areas juxtaposed, but not all the time, so it's interesting to see.

Although this next photo doesn't include much of the color of fall, the blues of the sky and water are so strong and contrast with the tan-brown of the plants that I had to post it.

We've now paddled back to the put-in at the bridge and are heading further downstream.  We didn't have much of a plan.  All we knew is that we were getting hungry, and that we did not relish a long hard paddle back against the wind and current.  The thought of this made us pay closer attention to the time as we headed downstream.  We did not want to get so engrossed in our downstream paddle that our trip back was no fun.  Around a bend in the creek, we saw a muskrat swimming toward us.  When he caught sight of us, he turned very quickly toward shore and was hiding in the reeds by the time we passed him.

As we paddled along and the wind died down, we heard a hawk's whistle.  Looking up, we saw one marsh hawk (Northern harrier) join another for a moment.  Then they split up again, and we only saw one.  He/she seemed to be enjoying the breeze, gliding around on the air currents.  We watched for a long time and at one point, he seemed frozen in place in the sky.  That was really cool to see.  I have watched a seagull do that once-- believe it or not, very nearby on the St. Lawrence River--  but had never watched any other bird just kind of "hang" in the air.  That was probably the highlight of the paddle-- well, maybe not-- the deer incident is close!

Here is one of the beaver houses we saw along the creek. This was one of the few spots on the creek where the current seemed weaker and the wind more calm.

Rounding a bend in this same calm area, we saw a great blue heron.  The photo isn't great, but they're such neat looking birds that I have to post his picture:

I have another shot of him as he flew off-- he was very shy.  I won't post that photo because it's all browns and grays like the one above.  Just imagine him flying away, off to the left...

This area was one of my favorite of trip.  It was around a big bend in the creek, marsh on one side, rocky shore on the other, and calm, shallow water with lilly pads.  We want to come back here and paddle in the summer to see everything green.

  I purposely put these similar photos near each other.  Which one do you like better?

                      

There are more rocky areas on west/south side of the creek as you go along toward Route 12.  We like rock formations and thought the nature-made rectangular blocks were neat.               

Our bellies had been rumbling for about an hour, so we finally decided to pull off somewhere.  If you paddle here, keep in mind that there are not many places to get out of your kayak and stretch or eat your lunch.  Maybe in low water there might be some shore areas, but there weren't any as we paddled.  What we found was a rock ledge that looked like a possibility.  It took some maneuvering, but we were able to land here.  My husband is in the background, wearing MY hat.  Guess he thinks he's funny!  (Actually, he did look pretty comical, considering his hat of choice is a baseball cap.)

As we sat eating our lunch, I looked up over my shoulder and saw the gorgeous blue sky through the pine tree's branches and needles and had to go get the camera from the dry bag.  Here is the resulting photo:

The wind blew in gusts at times as we ate, convincing us that we would be in for a steady paddle back upstream.  The sun was also competing with the clouds.  I think I had hoped to make it to the bridge over Route 12, just as a marker to figure out how far we had gone.  But, we decided to head back instead of paddling further downstream.

On the way, we passed by just two camps downstream from the Route 1 bridge.  Both looked barely used or abandoned all together, but with it being October, we can't be sure they aren't just summer camps.  I forgot to mention that at the Route 1 bridge there are homes on that road, and several homes/camps upstream for less than a half mile.  After that we did not see any other buildings. (We went less than 2 miles upstream.)

Near one of the camps that looked abandoned, there was a man-made rock wall.  We paddle over to investigate and found this snake skin.  I thought it was the skin of a medium-sized snake, but look closely and you will see more of the snakeskin skin in the shadow between the first and second rocks, left to right.  Well, I guess the slang term "snake skin" isn't quite correct.  The term for shedding, wiki just told me is: ecdysis.  Either than or simply "moulting."  I did not find out what the "snake skin" is called, other than "shed scales."  At any rate, the snake must have been rather long, from what we could tell!  And obviously, this rock wall was a great home... or at least a good resting place!

Our paddle was almost over--clouds were blowing in over us and we were looking forward to getting off the water. Yet we were sad that this might be our last paddle of the year.  The clouds above us formed an interesting pattern so I snapped a shot:

Back at the put-in at the bridge, we did some more maneuvering to get out.  I managed by sidling up to the reeds and bank, using my paddle behind me to balance the kayak, and got out easily.  My husband did the same thing, with some extra balancing help from me while he got out.  No problem!  As I mentioned in part one, we're getting better at entries and exits.

Here is one last photo of Crooked Creek from the put-in as we were leaving.  It's such a pretty spot, with lots of wildlife:  deer, spotted sandpiper, ducks, muskrat, beaver (though we didn't see one,) and great blue heron.  This creek will be on our list of places to return to.  Next time, it'll be in the summer and hopefully without wind! 

 Here's hoping we get one more paddle in this weekend.  Cross your fingers for us.  And don't expect me to "go away" once our paddling is done for the year.  We've been to over 30 different places, and I've only blogged about 7 or 8 of them.  So I plan to fill you in on some of them!

Please feel free to use the "reactions" buttons if you don't have time to leave a comment.  Feedback is always appreciated.  Happy kayaking!