Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Old Buck on Mississippi River
While I was taking photos of an accommodating heron from my kayak, I saw an old Buck and a Doe nestled in the weeds on the bank of an inlet that connects the Mississippi and the Minnesota rivers. I decided to go up on shore to see if I could get a couple of photos of them before they fled.Much to my surprise, the old buck didn't flee.
Old Buck Gives me the Stink Eye
Perhaps he noticed that I am a Van Buren Boy, because he uncorked a hellacious stink eye.
Old Buck Squares Off
He hoofed it over to where I was standing and stationed himself between me and the doe. He looked agitated and kept putting his head down.
Old Buck Challenges Me
Then he started to stamp the ground and snort and flap his nostrils.Obviously, he didn't like the cut of my jib.
Old Buck and Doe Walk Away
I stood still with my back to a little grove of saplings and kept taking photos. After a few minutes of posturing, he decided to walk away peacefully. Which is good, because I would have thrown hands.
Monday, December 7, 2009
My Old Pirogue
When I was a kid, my Creole uncle from down on the Mississippi Delta gave me this little eleven-foot Cajun pirogue. Since then I've paddled it hundreds of miles in Minnesota. I leech trapped with it. I fished out of it. I used to stand up in it and pole through the wild rice fields on the Ottertail river and Albertson lake. I took lots of pictures from it. Every spring I took it out early and floated with the ice barges on the river. I never wore a life jacket nor had warm protective clothes. I never tipped over. My pirogue was a safe haven in the conflagrations of the past.
When I was in Junior High, it was stolen twice. Once I recovered it on the other side of the lake. The next time, I heard some kids who lived upstream on the Ottertail river had stolen it and had it on the riverbank behind their house. My dad and I put another boat in upstream from their house, floated down, stole my boat back from the country-fried rubes, and paddled miles back down to our house.
For a boat more than fifty years old made of quarter-inch marine plywood, it's still in remarkably good shape. I'm going to fix it up with new fiberglass seams and a fresh coat of duck boat drab. Maybe, I'll take it out for a paddle a couple of times next summer.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Reflections and Mirror Images: A Kayak Tour of Round Lake
To see my new photo set on Flickr, click the link below.
Reflection and Reality III
All photos were taken from a kayak on Round Lake, a very small lake connected to Lake Phalen in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Mourning the Season
Itasca, Spring 2009.
The kayaking has been good this summer, sometimes difficult, but always good. I'm not ready for the season to end but winter is coming. If I don't get out for another paddle, December 1st will have been my last outing of 2009. Time to make plans for next summer.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thin Ice on Phalen Creek
The world of kayaking is beginning to contract. Weather permitting, I'm going to go out on the Mississippi tomorrow for my first December paddle.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Swimming with Garp
I messed with the undertoad.First you feel the sand being sucked out from around your feet. You start straining to grip bottom with the tips of your toes. Then you can't touch the bottom. You start to swim as hard as you can. Suddenly, the shore disappears. A wave crashes down on you forcing you underwater. You catch a glimpse of a more distant shore. And you're churned by another wave and another, and shore looks so far away.
You don't mess with the undertoad.
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