First Trip Out in 2013!

Welland River - May 2013

I finally made it out kayaking last week. At long last my days off work fell during nice weather!!! I launched at E.C Brown Conservation Area in Welland and headed West upriver. I hadn't paddled this direction before. It was a beautiful day with a weak west wind which was forecast to increase towards noon. Having that in mind, I decided without doubt to head west upriver then I'd have the wind at my back after I turned around. I left the launch at around 8am and returned around 11am. My trip was a total of 13km as per my GPS.
Here are some photos:

While I was on the water, two animals swam across the river in front of me. I couldn't get close enough to see what they were, but both looked to be beaver. I seen three herons and quite a few hawks with their young coasting on the wind. By far the coolest wildlife encounter was when a large carp jumped out of the water about three feet into the air in front of my kayak. It was only about 10 feet from my kayak! Very cool! It was a wonderful first trip of the season. The weather turned very warm by the time I got back to the launch but the west wind kept things nice enough. My plan to come back with a tail wind didn't work so well, as the Welland River turns so much, sometimes I was actually heading into the wind on my return trip. I can't wait to get out again!

Happy Kayaking!