Paddle Log #29 and 30 - Lake Winnipesaukee

We took a break from unpacking boxes to go enjoy a week in New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee and celebrate my wife's grandparents' 75th wedding anniversary. 

Last summer when we went to the lake, we flew to NH, so we didn't have our kayaks with us.  I ended up borrowing a kayak one day and renting kayaks on two other days.  That got us to thinking maybe we should just buy a kayak to leave at the lake and not have to worry about transporting it. 

Let me just say, it amazes me the things you can buy on Amazon.com and have delivered just about anywhere...

Paddle Log #29 was the maiden voyage of our new Emotion Tandemonium kayak. 

Last summer, my eldest son and I rented a Tandemonium from Trexler's Marina (see Paddle Log #26) and liked it a lot.  It's very similar to our Ocean Kayak Malibu Two XL in that it is a sit-on-top, but it also has cup-holders molded into it.  Just like our Malibu Two XL, it is very stable and nearly impossible to capsize. 

Time Stamp leaving the beach, YB with me, ES in his own kayak.

This is why I like coming to the lake later in the summer.  The water was VERY nice.

The boys brought their water cannons and had a blast (or two, or three) duking it out.

It started raining, and we headed back to the beach.

We were only out for about 30 minutes and paddled a smidge under a mile down the shore and back.


Paddle Log #30 was my solo trip around Long Island.  This is the third summer I've done this trek around the island.

I love this place.

This time, I had the treat of stopping to watch a loon feed her baby chick.  I didn't paddle any closer, and she didn't seem to mind me floating there while she dove down to get something to eat, then came up and fed some to her chick.  I also got to see a flock of about 16 mergansers swimming along the eastern side of the island.

I'm normally pretty annoyed by graffiti, but in this case I pretty much agree with the message.  Indeed, although I was disappointed by a couple of rainy days at the lake, I just reminded myself that a rainy day at the lake is MUCH better than a sunny day in the Pentagon.  :-)

It was a very calm and easy paddle until I got past the bridge there at Trexler's Marina.  In fact, I paused there at the bridge, got my phone out of my dry bag and emailed my wife to tell her I'd be back in 20 minutes if the boys wanted to get ready to go out in the boat.  Then, all of a sudden, the wind picked up out of the west-northwest.  As I rounded the north end of the island, I was paddling directly into whitecaps and choppy seas.  What should have taken me 20 minutes ended up taking me 40 minutes of very strenuous paddling to get back home.
 

 Time stamp returning to base, note the flag blowing violently in the wind.

Even so, it was an awesome paddle - mostly a relaxing, quiet time admiring the beauty of the lake, watching the loon and her chick and the mergansers, and then getting some strenuous exercise at the end.

Trip Stats from the GPS