Letting Go of the Bay Leaf: Merganser

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Mosaic Monday #45: Morning Glory

Do you ever wake up and wonder what the day will bring? You might run through your 'tasks' for the day and form a general expectation for the next 24 hours. And then there are days that take you by surprise, from the very beginning. Today* was one of those days. The morning started easily enough - I had a kayak date with Dear Neighbor Friend. In my mind, I soon labeled it Morning Glory.

Mist skimmed the fields as we navigated 5 farm gates between us and access to the lake. An unfamiliar person could easily become disoriented and lose her way in this fog. Normal objects suddenly loomed and took on mystical proportions.

At one point, Dear Neighbor Friend leaned over and peered at something near the ground. "What is it?" I queried, thinking of the young skunk we had seen not far from this spot on a previous outing. "A spider web," she said. Night-time dew bestowed pearls of water along every angle of the web. I am sure spiders have spun webs in these same locations before, but without the bedazzle, they are readily overlooked.

The mist had begun to lift as we launched our kayaks, but there was still enough about to lend a mysterious aspect to the lake.

At a time like this, you can imagine yourself in Loch Ness, Scotland, with the mist swirling, and a lone piper high on the moors. And the Loch Ness monster rising from the deep - but wait, it is only a merganser - yikes - our imaginations are getting the better of us! (Dear Neighbor Friend told me about kayaking with a friend in similar conditions, and encountering the merganser in the mist. I may have embellished the story a little …)

Can you see the wee duck in the top center of the photo?

We greeted the solitary bald eagle roosting at the far end of the lake, and speculated aloud what might have happened to the other half of the pair and the fledgling. We reversed course, and quite soon the sun had burned off the remaining wispy clouds. Dew lingered on the webs, and with the sun piercing the watery prisms, a thousand mini-rainbows colored the landscape.

That's what I call Morning Glory.

*This post was written on Thursday, September 12.

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

My Hiking Journal - Entries 9 and 10

Whitefish River

It's been a while since I wrote a post about hiking ... so many other topics have crowded it out.

But it seems appropriate, now that temperatures are warming and only a few tiny islands of snow remain in the yard, to flash back to last summer with a double feature - kayaking AND hiking.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - Whitefish River - 10 miles

Our first kayaking trip ever on Whitefish River, we learned about the River while simultaneously gaining a general kayaking refresher.

One of the downsides of kayaking is water ... well, what I mean is - I can't have my camera (my phone) out all the time for fear of water damage or, worse yet, accidentally letting it join the fishies and river reeds. So generally, you will find fewer of my pictures in this and future posts about kayaking. (Taking a picture involves stopping on the shore, unhooking the waterproof bag, unrolling it and digging into the towel protecting the phones and car keys. You can see why Man with Hat might not want to do this every 5 minutes!)

Launch Point - Kay Beller Park (internet)

We launched our 2-person inflatable kayak near downtown Whitefish and paddled upstream to Whitefish Lake. It wasn't far, but our arms could definitely feel the current. Once pointed downstream, I felt like Superman freed from the grip of Kryptonite - strong!!! In Riverside Park, kids lined the pedestrian bridge, taking turns to jump or flip into the water below. (This only happens in the spring, when the river is high enough to offer a safe depth for jumping.)

Pedestrian Bridge (internet)

To escape the downtown area, the river flows underneath Spokane Avenue, via two massive culvert tunnels. This was a new one for us. Would we be able to navigate the return journey through the culvert? What if there were unseen obstacles in the tunnel? Fortunately, a couple of hard-sided kayaks floated by while we dithered, and passed through without mishap. So, we took a breath and entered the tunnel ... the water gathered itself into a strong current centered in the middle of the culvert, which pulled the kayak along. Quickly, we emerged into sunlight on the other side. But that same sunlight revealed a casualty - the fishing pole of Man with Hat was gone! It must have snagged on a willow branch while we pondered our course of action ... not an auspicious beginning to our kayaking season and a true downer for Man with Hat!

Putting aside our disappointment, we paddled on. The river reveals its true beauty once past Spokane Avenue. A female common merganser with 5 ducklings. Plentiful magpies and red-winged blackbirds. A footbridge with a picnic table under a gazebo. Canada Geese parents keeping careful watch over 7 goslings.

(Internet)

After some time, we turned the kayak back to the west (and the Superman effect rapidly disappeared). Paddle, paddle, and paddle some more. How can water that looks that calm have such a strong current? When we arrived back at the tunnels, we quickly concluded that we would not be able to propel our way through its current. Our only option was to portage up and over the road - I am sure we made an odd picture waddling awkwardly across the road with our bright yellow kayak!

We covered 10 miles in 4.5 hours; it was a valuable refresher, but losing a fishing pole, paddling up river and the portage were not experiences we wanted to repeat again in a hurry!

Monday, June 5, 2017 - Crater Notch Trail - 8 miles out and back

On the road again ... to nowhere. If you've been following my blog, you know that 25% of the time we have been thwarted with a planned hike, always due to snow. June 5 did not improve that record! As you can see in the picture below, the road to the Camp Misery trailhead (appropriate name!!!) was impassable beyond this point. Man with Hat maneuvered the car backwards quite a distance before he reached a point wide enough to turn around, and even then it was a 12-point turn!

That is Man with Hat in the distance, checking out the road.

Having packed all our gear for a lengthy hike, we weren't prepared to give up that easily, and opted for a nearby trail, a spur off the Broken Leg Trail we had seen on May 29 (follow this link for that post).

Crater Notch Trail earns its name from the 'notch' in the mountains that is revealed after 3000 feet of elevation gain, which ultimately leads the able hiker to Crater Lake. The trail has dense foliage, and given the rain the previous night, our boots and pants legs were soon drenched. (At the end of the hike, there was not much improvement.)

I found it curious that we did not see many flowers on this hike given the proximity of paradise we experienced on Broken Leg, the next ridge over. Upon reflection, it makes sense - the thick foliage does not allow for as much sun ... nevertheless, I spied a few newbies (for me).

Upper left - Baldhip Rose; Upper right and Center Left - Bead Lily

Center right - Bear Grass; Bottom - Broadleaf Arnica

As always, we kept our eyes peeled for wildlife, especially bears, but the most we saw of the four-legged creature was scat on the trail (picture not included!) We startled a pair of blue grouse; one flew into a tree but the other one ran ahead of us on the trail for quite a distance before he finally got fed up and scuttled into the bushes.

Man with Hat searching out the trail

After about four miles, we could get no further due to snow. Foiled again, Batman!

Imagine the irony when we arrived back at the trailhead and I took a closer look at the trail sign: This trail is normally free of snow by mid-May. Ha!

This spring and early summer we are likely to see comparable conditions since our region had snowfall akin to the previous winter. One of these seasons, we will learn which trails to avoid until later in the summer!