the Way of the Turtle

RAIN!
4.8 Mile Paddle on Black Creek
Sunday, August 23, 2009

Ann suggested we take the kayaks out today and since there's no telling how many more times we'll be able to do that this year, I agreed pretty quickly. The rain this week has most of the creeks running high, so we wanted to stick to waters that we knew would be safe... ie. a pond, lake, or river. Toyed briefly with the idea of heading down to Honeoye or Canadice Lake, even more briefly with hauling the boats 1/4 mile from the Turning Point Park lot down to the Genesee River and heading upstream to Lower Falls... but in the end decided on Black Creek out in Churchville, where a dam creates a wide, easy-to-paddle backwater a couple of miles upstream.

I wondered briefly when we got there if we'd made a good choice, since it seemed like everyone and his brother (and all their kids, to boot) was there with a canoe or kayak. But in the end, other than one noisy group that we passed twice, we mostly had the water to ourselves. Of course, the weather may have helped with that... a little over a mile upstream from where we put in, it started sprinkling lightly... no big deal, if it let up quickly. Then we looked up ahead and saw what seemed like a wall of rain advancing down the river. Ann asked if I saw it, I said yes, and we both paddled like mad to get under the cover of some overhanging trees on opposite sides of the creek. Paddlers with sprayskirts probably don't need to be all that concerned about rain, as long as the water isn't too rough... but our boats have fairly wide cockpits and are totally open, so we were looking at taking on a lot of water if the rain was heavy and lasted for any length of time. And kayaks full of water don't float all that well...

I'd guess we had to wait about 10 minutes before it eased up... ten cold, wet minutes as it rained harder and harder and the branches offered decreasing protection. Finally, we moved out from under cover, agreed that we should probably head back... and it kicked in again. This time we both ducked under the same trees, and fortunately the worst rain only lasted a few minutes.

By the time we got back it had stopped raining altogether, so we decided to keep heading downstream and paddled almost another mile and a half before turning around. For the most part it was pretty easy going, other than one or two very shallow spots.

Last year when we paddled here we saw lots of wildlife and today was the same. There was an egret hunting near where we put in, and two more at other points during our time on the water. For the most part they didn't seem too bothered by our presence, so we got to watch them hunt, which was very cool. A couple of kingfishers swooped around as well, chattering away. We also saw three herons and a number of small turtles, and I one point I passed what I thought was a large stick poking up out of the water which turned out to be the snout of a medium-sized snapping turtle (I think he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him.)

All in all, other than the rain it was a good day to be out on the water. Hopefully we can get in a few more paddling sessions before it gets too chilly to be fun and safe.

JMH