Happy at the Lake

I knew I was going to the lake today.  I knew this might be my last chance.

Next week, the weather is supposed to turn rainy with temps in the 60's.  This weekend it should be nice, but it will crowded at the lake.  I don't go there on weekends because it is too crowded and noisy.

And sometimes a person can't even find a parking space.

So today was it.

I did all my chores in a hurry and even some yard work I had put off and left by 1:00 p.m.

I took my Aleve because the rowing will affect my bad shoulder.  The pain comes about two days afterwards and can last a week.  But it's worth it.

Look how beautiful it is up there?  Don't you think it's worth it?

My battery charged air pump, to blow up the raft, is failing, as I knew it would eventually, barely holds a charge.  This meant after it died a lot of hand pumping, in 90 degree heat.  Oh well.  Good for me.  But I was hot.  I waded into the lake to cool off before embarking.

I row all over.  When I get around trash collection point, beyond Osprey Tree and Stump Alley, into the second arm, and just past the day use area on the far north of the lake, that now is closed for some Iron Man event going on this weekend, that includes a swimming leg, I turn east.  I like to find a beach or go the rocks on the south side of the arm.

The rocks enchant me they are so beautiful with the dazzling blue water and you can sit on a submerged rock and stare down the rock cliff beneath the water and watch trout scavenge for food.  They were small trout I saw today.  They came very close to my submerged feet.

The rocks have been vandalized and tagged and it makes me sick.  Tagging like that is just like male cats spray marking.  Somebody needs neutered.

The area above them is also trashed out.  Nonetheless I climbed up to jump off the rock into the water one time.  There were young people up there using a rope swing rigged off a tree branch.  I asked if they would mind if I jumped just once, that I didn't want to disturb them.  They said "go ahead", so I immediately jumped.

I swam then and pulled the raft behind me, as I swam, to the north side of the arm and as I went, I watched the young people do spectacular jumps and flips, from the swing rope.  Eventually they moved to jumping off the rock I'd jumped off of.

You can see the red graffiti rock almost dead center of the photo, right to left, and just above horizontal center, on the far shore, just to the left and above the duck swimming.  I jump off the flat area above the rock above it.

It's not that far to swim across the arm from that rock to where I was when I took the photo.  Not long after that, a boat ignoring the speed limit, went by with a huge wake.  I was sitting on a rock a foot from the water and my raft and did not get to my raft in time.  The huge wake hurled it sideways and nearly capsized it against the rocks along that shore.  Waves came over the side into the raft.  I had to pull it ashore then and dump the water out.   No big deal.

I love those huge waves when I'm out on the water in the raft.

After that, I rowed back towards Trash Collection Point, at a leisurely pace, and decided there was time for a short nap.  I pulled the paddle board I tow into the raft and drained its skin of water and propped it behind me, across the raft's pontoons, and laid back and was quickly asleep.  Awwwww.  Napping on a gently rocking raft with the sun low in the sky, there's nothing like it.

But then I woke to boats coming close and got going again and no sooner had I done so but a boat headed directly my way.  I joked to myself "Don't hit me, bro!"  Then I realized it was the sheriff.  "I know what you want," I said.  "Really?" the deputy asked, quite jovial.

"You want to see my invasive species permit," I said, matter of factly.  "You're right," he replied.  "You mean you actually have one?"   He said of the 9 non motorized boats he'd stopped today, I was the first to have the required permit.

The permit costs $7 and is supposed to fund education about transport by boat hull of invasive species around the state and country and into the country.  All motorized boats must have one but non motorized rafts must also if they are ten feet or more in length.

My raft is 12 feet.  One year I actually got a boat license because you have to have one if you get a gas motor and I intended to do that.  But I let the registration go because its so darn expensive and after awhile, I realized I'd never be able to get a motor and I liked rowing it around just fine anyway.

I had to come home finally.  I did not want to.  I never do when I go to the lake.  I love going there.  Makes me happy!

I didn't take many pictures because when the huge wake came that nearly flooded my raft, my camera got a bit wet, so I dried it and put it away, took the batteries out, but its ok.  I love that tiny camera, sent to me by a Texas woman.

On the way home, I got half flat of strawberries and two honeydew melons at the K Family Farm, there on Seven Mile.  They're very good to me there.

If anyone knows me, they know there's nothing I like better than reading a good book with cats all around me while nibbling fat Oregon strawberries.

I got this in the mail via my cat loving Surrey British Columbia friend.  Awesome, eh?

Miss Daisy loves Fancy Feast and the Bonito Flakes and won't leave me alone about the Party Treats.  She also loves the Friskies Tasty Treasures variety sent me.   It's good though, because she's gained some weight back.  Can be hard to keep weight on old cats.  Vision too loves the Bonito Flakes and the Fancy Feast.

Well that's all for now.  Soon we shall be taking another long trip to the north coast clinic for dentals.   Sure, the day can be a challenge with the long drive, but I am already looking forward to it.  Change of scenery!