Down River

This Wednesday we did a paddle 3 1/2 miles downriver from Willow Beach to locate the elusive Frogman Petroglyph. I've seen a lot of the other petroglyphs but I had never been able to locate the Frogman which is probably the most famous. As luck would have it, Bruce showed up for the paddle and the mystery was solved. Bruce probably knows where everything is located in Black Canyon. After a short downstream paddle, with beautiful weather, we arrived at the Frogman. If you didn't know where it was, it would be really tough to find since you can't see the petroglyph from the water and it's a really tough spot to land a kayak. As for wildlife, we spotted a couple Bald Eagles on the way down and on the way back we ran across a couple Great Blue Herons and a small group of Bighorn Sheep.

The Frogman

Phil & Pat, a couple brand new members to our meetup group joined us. 

Great Blue Heron

Bad Weekend At The Lake

Not me...someone else. The weather was supposed to be beautiful again so Monday I decided to get in a bit of paddle time. As I was paddling down the shoreline I came across this debacle.

I don't know if the driver was coming in at night and mistook the campgrounds for the marina or maybe they just had one too many beers to celebrate St Patricks Day. Either way it was a bad night for them...and probably expensive. The boat was about 50 or 60 feet up on the beach. Later I saw a couple vehicles with a trailer trying to load the boat. That must not have worked because shortly after that a big truck with a hoist showed up to lift the boat onto the trailer. I would have liked to have been there to see what damage was done to the hull. They must have hit the beach wide open.

On a happy note, Spring is here. The turkey vultures are coming back. I haven't seen any of them all Winter.

Herons On The Lake

Yesterday was so nice I decided to spend another morning on the lake. While passing a small island I noticed what I believed to be a Heron perched on the ledge. I edged my kayak his way, pulled out my camera and started taking some pictures. As I drifted closer I noticed a second and third heron. Then two more. It seemed to be a flock. I suddenly looked up a bit to my left and there were 2 birds sitting on nests on the edge of the cliff. Not wanting to spook them off and endanger their eggs I slowly paddled back and left them to their nesting. I'll often see herons around the lake but I've never seen this many together before.

I believe these are Blue Herons but I'm not positive

Two mothers nesting

This Cormorant was hanging out on one of the buoys near the boat ramp.

Paddle To Castle Cove

I scheduled a meetup at the PWC Beach today to paddle to Sentinel Island. The one person who did sign up didn't show but I was pleasantly surprised to find Bruce waiting. Bruce probably has more experience paddling this area than anyone else so it's always nice to have his expertise. I had only been to Sentinel Island once before so Bruce was kind enough to show me where the best landing point was. After a quick break, the water was so smooth and calm we decided to paddle another mile or so across to Castle Cove on the Arizona side of the lake. As we were heading into the cove we spotted a beaver! I didn't even know we had beavers in this area. I tried to get some photos of him but they're quick, flighty critters and the best I could do was a distant shot of his tail disappearing around the bend. After another short break we headed back. Bruce decided to stay around Boulder Islands to do some fishing and I headed back to the PWC Beach. The temps were probably in the low 70's and I think the water is warm enough that I don't need the waterproof booties any more. In fact it was so nice out today I think I'll go back out tomorrow!

The elusive Bruce. (Sorry, I have no idea what his last name is.)

Our view from the beach at Sentinel Island

If you follow the wake to the right you can just see the beavers tail disappearing.

Leaving Castle Cove for the trip back.

                                          Here's the Strava link that shows our route today.

                                               http://app.strava.com/activities/44158816

Beautiful Day At Lake Mead

Took a look at Windfinder this morning. It seemed like today was going to be the only decent day this week with high winds and possible rain moving in so I loaded up the kayak and headed out to the PWC Beach. I had no set plan. I was just going to "freestyle" to get some miles in. I managed 9 miles before calling it a day. Pretty uneventful but the weather was perfect. Winds were 2-3 mph at the most and the temperature was probably in the mid 60's. Signs of summer where obvious...a couple jet skis tearing around the lake (sigh). At least the water will be warm enough to learn rolling pretty soon. I'm looking forward to it.

A shot of the Las Vegas Marina while returning from the Hemingway Wall.

If you want to see my route, you can click on the link below. Please keep in mind that Strava is mainly a biking and running program so it lists this route as a bike ride. (That would be some trick.)

http://app.strava.com/activities/43278469