Another gorgeous day happened to fall on Wednesday, my day off. You’ve got to love when that happens. After a late breakfast at Rogers, we headed out to Lake Rico once we loaded the kayak in the truck. Desmond had told me on our last trip that he wanted to go to the lake next. It’s his favorite spot, because he actually gets to jump out of the kayak and explore several times during the trip. He’s always a trooper when it comes to sitting in the kayak for hours at a time, but if he gets a chance to go to a place where he can get out every once in a while, he really enjoys the trip much more.
Maybe it was a lucky sign for the day, but just as we were putting our kayak in the lake, there was a huge frog just sitting there chilling out and didn’t even move an inch when I slid the kayak in the water. Desmond spotted it first, and by the time I got the camera on it, he was all set with checking us out and made his way into the depths. We pushed off and made our way towards the larger section of the lake where the adventure really begins.
Water levels were pretty high today. I guess the rain we had last week really helped to fill the lake. The water, as it usually is at Lake Rico, was crystal clear. I could easily see the plant life, and some decent sized fish swimming beneath us. I took advantage of this and put the waterproof cover on the GoPro so we could get some underwater shots. Unfortunately I only picked up plants and underwater debris and wasn’t able to catch any fish or turtles swimming by. It all about luck when trying to get those shots, and I guess after seeing the frog, I wasn’t going to catch much more on the camera.
We stayed primarily on the west side of the lake today, hitting all our normal favorite spots. My favorite beach was the first stop, which according to Des is his 3rd favorite stop on the lake. I really enjoy this beach. You’ve seen it in many of my pictures, and other videos, and is the banner at the top of my webpage. It’s so quiet there. With the nice soft sandy bottom, you can take your shoes off and wade in the water, even this time of the year when it is still quite cold. It takes a bit of work to get here since it is pretty far from the put in, but that’s why I like it. It’s the prefect break spot after making your way across the lake. We sat there for a while, watching the fish check us out as we stuck our feet in. After a while I looked at the clock and we had to get moving if I wanted to get out at a reasonable time.
We next headed into the swampy Kings Pond section of the lake. We only briefly went in there. It’s packed with vegetation and lily pads, but it’s the best place to spot the largest turtles in the lake. Luckily enough we saw some seriously big ones. I wasn’t really able to get them on the GoPro, but Des got a chance to see them pretty close. He thought at first that they were snapping turtles. They were quite big so I could see how he would think that, but they were definitely just very large painted turtles. Actually, they were probably the largest turtles I have ever seen at Lake Rico. They jumped in the water as we got too close, so we turned around and began our way to Desmond’s favorite spot, another beach on the opposite end of the lake.
About half way across, we ran into a large male swan that was swimming around by himself. We had just been talking about trying to get closer to a swan next time we spotted one, so we approached carefully and he let us get very close before he started swimming away from us. I was happy because swans are known to rush you when they get frightened and will get right up in your face. This guy wasn’t that interested in us, most likely because he didn’t have a lady friend to protect. We watched him swim in the other direction and finished the way to the beach.
We didn’t spend too much time at the beach. It was already getting late. We had spent about 3 hours on the lake at this point, and I wanted to get Des home in time for dinner. We hung out and walked through the water for a bit. Lots of little baby fish were swimming around our feet, wondering what this new sight was all about. We were probably the first legs they had ever seen. They were very interested, and a few came right up and stuck their mouths right on my feet. The little ones are always ballsie. You would never catch the adult fish getting that close to a person. We jumped back in the kayak and made our way back to the truck.
Before we went back to the put in, we stopped one last time at a spot we found when we had walked around the lake a few weeks ago. It’s a shady spot, surrounded by pine trees, with a nice big rock with what looks like a giant turd with a face painted on the rock. Unfortunately over the past few weeks, there must have been some folks drinking over there who decided to smash all their beer bottles on the rock, so the area was covered with broken glass. Maybe next time we go, I will try to rake it up with a stick or something. This time though, we were just extra careful as we walked around, and jumped back in the kayak after a few minutes to head back to the put in.
I will always recommend Lake Rico to anyone that lives in the area. Sure it can get a little windy at times on the lake which makes it a little tough to control the kayak for most, but if you catch it on the right day, it is like nature’s wonderland, with so much to explore, and loads of fun to be had. Anytime any of you are interested, let me know, and I’d be glad to take you out on the lake for a great adventure.
