Up A Creek

After a couple weeks of absence, I once again headed out to the US National Whitewater Center last Sunday for a little kayak time.  Miss Chef had homework to do, so she stayed at home.  I try to think of these paddle sessions as a special trip to the gym.  Between the drive, check-in and walk to the dock, I can probably be from my front door onto the water in about 30 minutes.  Well, on a Sunday, that is.  Saturday afternoons are another story.

This trip was pretty uneventful.  Saw an enormous dead fish on my way back into the creek.  Didn't get to go as far as before, since the water level has been dropping.  Fewer planes, so more of a sense of solitude.  As I headed back out, I enjoyed playing with the stroke of my paddle, seeing how fast I could go, or how much power I could maintain, not really caring that much about the wildlife around me.

And then, as I came around the bend by the old beaver dam, I saw this.

I took several minutes of video as my kayak continued to float aimlessly toward the bank.  "I'll get a cool video of him taking off," I thought to myself.  But he (or she) only continued to watch me with alertness, eventually becoming less concerned.

Eventually it struck me that this heron wasn't going anywhere, short of my saying "Boo!" or throwing a stick at it.  Which I was not about to do.  So I put the camera down, picked up my paddle, and tried to maneuver away as slowly and quietly as possible.  I figured as I started to turn the kayak around, it would finally take flight.  But as I eased around the other side of the bend and was finally able to look back over my shoulder, it was still there.

And you know what was even cooler?  A minute later I saw another one.