We went back to Lake Rico today. Des thought it would be a good idea, and Jocelyn was coming along for the ride. This lake is a great place to go for people who have never been. I know I have said it dozens of times here but in my personal opinion Lake Rico is probably one of the best lakes to kayak in southeastern Massachusetts. It has so many options, and spending four hours there today, we managed to only covered about half of the lake. It was a blast, and for most of the early morning, we were the only boats on the lake and it was nice to have the whole place to ourselves.
Right off the bat, the wind was cranking. I knew it was supposed to be cloudy but I failed to notice info on the wind when I looked at my weather app this morning. There were some 20+ mph gusts flying through but lucky for us, it wouldn't really effect our paddling until we were headed in the opposite direction back to the truck. For now we were safe, and after getting to the large section of the lake and stopping at the peace sign rock, and Desmond's secret spot (which today was not all that secret with the 3 kids fishing there) we made our way to the first beach stop with the wind at our backs pushing us along.
We played in the woods around the beach for quite a while with Desmond, walking around the paths and playing zombies vs plants as we walked. We spent about 45 minutes here before we set on to the next stopping spot. I didn't record any video of our fun in the woods before we got back in the kayaks. Just assume it was a load of fun, as it always is when your hanging with the Des-man.
From the beach, we headed in the swampy area of the lake known as Kings Pond. The lily pads were getting seriously thick here, and in a few more weeks we won't be able to access this section until the fall. Something about taking the kayak through huge sections of lily pads, leaving a trail in your wake of the path you took is for some reason an enjoyable activity for me. That is pretty easy to do here. We passed a swan couple hanging out before heading to a clearing in the tall reeds to take a break from the whipping wind. We managed to pull within feet of a red winged blackbirds nest. The two birds then took quite a bit of time to tell us how they felt about our kayaks being so close to their nest. They continued to freak out until they most likely realized we weren't interest in their nest at all. Red winged blackbirds rule the wetland area. I have seen them fight off hawks, heron, and even owls that were getting too close to their nests. They are a seriously protective family of birds.
Next we headed over to the sand pit area that is along the shore on one end of the lake. The wind was really blowing in our direction now, so I didn't mind at all that we stopped here for a bit before heading back up against the wind. Desmond decided the activity for us at this stop was going to be making faces in the sand of him, Jocelyn and myself. After we got done making one face for each of us, he wanted to make a whole other set. Collecting things to use for faces was actually pretty entertaining. I was impressed at how good they looked when we were done. We managed to kill quite a bit of time here before getting on our way. As we pulled out we saw a log with a few turtles on it, and one brave painter decided to sit there even with us inches from him. He didn't move at all until I touched it. Then it stayed close to us, sticking its head out of the water, then moving a little further and popping its head out again, watching us pull out to the wind driven waves coming at us on this end of the pond.
Whenever the wind is blowing in this particular direction, the run from the sand pit to the next beach is always the hardest part to paddle. The wind has been blowing clear all the way across the pond to be meeting with us on the far end, and it was pretty choppy as we paddled through. I laughed pretty hard when I saw 2 guys in a cheap blow up paddle boat in the middle of the lake paddling in circles trying to fight the wind. I don't know who came up with the bright idea of taking that kind of boat out in the wind. Hopefully they learned a lesson. They didn't even really seem to know how to paddle all that well. We passed by them just before getting to the last beach stop for our trip. We pulled up to a lady and her little girl with a couple of dogs having a great time in the sand and water. It was pretty funny watching the lady try to wrangle the husky mix who obviously didn't want to leave the beach any time soon. Jocelyn found a bunch of caterpillars that we played with for a bit before Desmond wanted to play Star Wars for the remainder of the break. Jocelyn was a real champ, playing along with us for about 30 minute of never ending storm troopers and Darth Vaders attacking from every angle. But before I knew it, 4 hours had literally flew by and we needed to make our way back to the put in.
I'm not joking, the day literally few by. The lake, and good company can really do that to you. Lake Rico didn't disappoint today. It really was loads of fun, especially for the second trip for us this week. Having a third day off this week was a much needed rest from work. For me, kayaking is the activity that works the best for clearing the mind, and really enjoying what nature has to offer on a beautiful day.
