Maiden Voyage

I bought a kayak earlier this year.  I finally got it registered.  Yesterday I took it out on the water for the first time.  I forgot to bring the bottle of champagne.  This kayak is special. I have bought boats with other people and for other people but this boat is mine and mine alone.  The water on the river is still nearly at flood stage so I chose a lake.  Crooked Lake has always intrigued me.  I see part of it from Highway 10 frequently. I knew it was ringed by homes.  I've seen the boat landing on the north side of the lake and I knew that parking lot was quite busy.  I knew there was a park on the east side of the lake because I took my kids there swimming many, many years ago.  I knew the lake was shallow and weedy.  I knew only one meal of fish per month was the recommendation for women and children due to mercury and other pollutants.  What I did not know was what a great lake Crooked Lake is.  I put in at the north access near Bunker Lake Boulevard.  Because I can pull my boat through the grass by hand and don't need a dock, I didn't need to wait in line like the bigger boaters.  I talked to one guy who was just leaving at 10:30 a.m.   He had caught and released two nice bass and kept one 30 inch northern pike.  He went home happy.  I heard 3 green frogs singing their love songs in the rushes.  As I paddled away from the access I judged the lake shore property owners.  A yard with a 10 foot shore margin of trees, bushes and tall grasses with cattails growing into the lake was "a good steward of the land."  A yard with weed free clipped grass and all cattails removed was "uneducated or unenlightened or unaware."   Most of the good stewards were clustered at the north end end of the lake.  White water lilies were in blossom.  The weeds were thick but a kayak can plow right over weeds.  Motor boaters had to stick to a narrow open channel on the north end of the lake.  The lake gets wider in the middle.  I paddled counter clockwise going south on the west shore and north on the east shore.  Two loons were hanging out at the south end of the lake nearest Highway 10.  I was happy to see them.  One homeowner (one of those uneducated ones) had a purple martin nest which I was happy to see.  I saw purple martins flying over the water.  Another homeowner on the western side of the lake had a 20 foot metal statue of a male figure carrying the earth on his back.  The earth was hollow and the round shape was shown by the latitude and longitude lines and the continents.  What would possess a person to put such a large statue of Atlas looking out at Crooked Lake?  There has to be a good story behind this.  This particular Atlas looked strong and able.  He wasn't crouched or kneeling.  Several speed boats went by at full throttle.  My kayak handled the waves pretty well. I wonder why people are in such a hurry on this tiny lake.  One especially large speed boat was pulling a water skiier.  The boat sped down into the narrow north end of the lake and realized he had no room to turn around without going into the weeds.  He suddenly cut the engine and I worried that the skiier would ski right into the propeller but the boater turned to the side so the skiier came to the side of the boat.  Crazy driver!  Within an hour, my circular tour of Crooked Lake was over. I stuffed the kayak back in the trunk, tied my red scarf to the end hanging out, and drove home feeling exercised, energized and reinvigorated from my boating excursion.