Kayak Adventure (Vacation 2)

On Monday, we decided to go on a kayaking and hiking adventure to the more remote Gull Lakes. Big Moose Lake has houses all the way around, so there was pretty much always someone boating or swimming or jet-skiing or something. But the Gull Lakes didn't have any property on them, so we were likely to have them all to ourselves. Getting there, according to Boyfriend, involved kayaking over to the trailhead and then hiking about a mile up to the lakes. This was the plan (kayak section in red, hiking in blue):

The intended route to the Gull Lakes

We set out. I had never kayaked before, so Boyfriend and I were in a two-person kayak together. His sister came along in her own kayak. The wind was blowing pretty hard when we set out, which meant the lake was fairly choppy. We crossed to the opposite shore, then paddled down to the inlet in water that was comparatively smoother.

I was impressed with how many different shades of green the trees were. In Colorado, everything was more or less the same shade because we only get 2-3 species of tree on a mountain (Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, and maybe some aspens depending on the age of the forest). But here there was a ton of variety.

So much green

Once we got into the inlet, the water became very still. It was pretty easy to paddle since we weren't fighting any waves or current. Though we did find out the hard way the the water was really shallow. We got our kayak stuck in the mud several times and had to backtrack and go around. The first time this happened, we almost hit a frog. It shrieked and jumped out of the way, which made us laugh. I mean, who's ever heard of a shrieking frog?

Lily pads and still water

a "mountain"

Unfortunately, Boyfriend didn't quite remember where the trail head was. He'd only been there twice before. It was hard to see the sign from the middle of the inlet and nearer the shore, the marshes were too shallow to navigate easily. With one thing and another, we ended up kayaking all the way to the end of the inlet.

We kayaked almost twice as far as we needed to

The very end of the inlet was a massive maze of pretty purple flowers. The way through was just wide enough for the kayak, and we ran into the flowers quite a bit. But we survived and had lots of fun.

The maze of purple flowers

On the way back down the inlet, we were still trying to find the trail head and went ashore anywhere that looked promising.

Boyfriend thought this might be the trail. It wasn't.

We also saw a huge bird. The picture is kind of fuzzy because we were about to run aground again and I was in a rush. You can see how shallow the water is here.

Bird in the distance. The brown is mud sticking out of the water

Finally, Boyfriend's sister found the trail. We pulled in our kayaks and set off on the trail.

This sign was really hard to see from the water

Stowing the kayaks before our hike

We also had to sign into and out of the trail in a book. I guess this was so the rangers would know if they needed to go looking for anyone at the end of each day

The trail register

The trail took us past Gull Lake 1, which was really pretty, but apparently flooded. The original trail to Gull Lake 2 had washed out and we had to go up a hill and around to get to it.

Gull Lake 1

Gull Lake 2

Another view of Gull Lake 2

Boyfriend was excited about the green water. I was excited to stop and eat lunch. Boyfriend swam out to the rock across the way. But between the cold water and the fact that I can't swim, I was less than eager to get into the lake. I waded in a little ways and then tried to help his sister make a fire. We were unsuccessful.

Boyfriend made it to the rock!

We made up for the lack of fire by setting off bottle rockets.

Three at once!

Boyfriend and I at Gull Lake

On the hike back, we saw a frog that looked like a leaf!

Frog!

After we made it back to the house, we set off some more fireworks (which I forgot to put in the last post)

Spraklers!

The tail end of a pretty cool firework

Sadly, the fireworks upset the dog. So we still have a bunch left. Since they're illegal in Virginia, we're not sure where or when we'll be able to set the rest off.