Loading Up the Kayak

The dry grass and foxtails have driven us out of the field where we like to walk with Ozzie in the morning, so we've taken to walking in Spring Lake Park instead. It is a lovely park and very busy in the summer with boats and kayak rentals, a swimming lagoon with snack bar and bike, equestrian and pedestrian trails. There are several kids' day camps and we saw a very enthusiastic group of junior lifeguards in training.

The early mornings are the time for people who fish and kayak on the lake. The other day as we were arriving, we saw two men dressed in waterproof khakis .who appeared to have replaced their heads with inflatable floats. They were carrying them down the sidewalk along with their fishing poles and one very large fish. A young couple stood on adjacent rocks on the lakeshore, poles in the water. There was no air stirring, and the lake was calm and placid. A herd of geese headed at a stately pace from their field, across the footpath and into the lake. They took no notice of Ozzie despite his intense interest in them.

This morning we decided on a new strategy to save OilMan's arm from being pulled from its socket. We drove around the back of the lake, through the campground, ind into a large parking lot by the boat ramp. There seems to be little objection to dogs swimming here and we have often seen other people with water crazed dogs here. It is a straight shot from the car to the lake for Ozzie.

While OilMan threw sticks, I watched quite an elderly lady glide up to the boat ramp in a yellow kayak. She brought the bow right up on the cement ramp, sat there organizing her bird book, binoculars and other essentials in a waterproof pouch, extracted her purple welly-clad legs from the kayak (no easy feat for anybody, since they have to be inserted through the hole where one sits while simultaneously sliding them into the kayak and lowering onerself to the seat, legs sticking straight out), waded through shallow water, and headed slowly but steadily for her car, not a drop of water on her.

I caught her hoisting her kayak into her roomy vehicle after she had driven it the few hundred yards from where she had parked. I was impressed with her deliberation of movement--no wasted effort, no hurry, very efficient. She made it look quite easy, and I know from experience that it isn't. It looked very appealing--unfortunately, there is no room for Ozzie in kayak!

You can find some of the other pictures I took in my Blipfolio under the ppropriate headings