Saturday, August 27, 2005

8.5 with another storm brewing

The shortcut is easy to find going the other way, but now I know exactly where it is, have a tree for a landmark, and will find it coming into the bay as well as leaving it. Took the north route up towards the houses. It looks to me like this is natural bayou area, but then some of the paths must be cut channels. It was nice to see another new area and I found some other places to explore up there. Today was a race challenge and I'm worn out. Two bends away from the boat ramp it was 11:15 and I had to be somewhere at 12:00, so I was breaking speed records getting back. Good conditioning for my next race!

Creatures included one jellyfish in the bayou and another in the gulf, lots of egrets and herons, an average number of fish, no gators, no mammals. Caught this heron taking flight with the Pentax. It's a bright sunny day with few small clouds, but hurricane Katrina is spinning up to bring devastation somewhere near here by Monday. It was high tide while I was out today... wonder how high the water will get...

A little philosophy for today. I was thinking how kayaking is like life, you get choices along the way and decide which way to go. Sometimes you can turn back easily if you change your mind, other times you have to stay with your choice and follow it through. There are clues as you travel which help you make smarter choices if you're paying attention. This ability to review the trip with the GPS track gives valuable feedback. There are things like that in life where feedback is available to show you what you did right and wrong, and it can really help you develop your skills for the next time.

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