Kayaking

Well, winter is hanging on here in the bay. Last night (Thursday night) we had a low of 21 degrees. We still have about 8 feet of snow on the ground and tonight there is a snow warning calling for up to 4" of snow. We regularly get two to three times the forecast because of our little microclimate, so we're braced and ready.

Although it has been snowing most days, we did get have a clear day this week and took the kayaks out for a paddle.

With the sun out, we decided to shovel off the kayaks and
do a little spring kayaking around the bay. We pushed off
the dock under clear skies and calm seas.

If you look closely, you can see sailboat Bob and the lodge to
the left of the orange kayak.

Although it was sunny when we left the dock, by the time we

had paddled over to the other side of the bay, it started to snow.

Then we ran into ice in the first arm. We paddled through it

for a while before giving up and heading back to open water.

We paddled over to "town" and by the time we got to the

waterfall, the sun was back out. This is Baranof falls.

You can see that there is still a lot of snow here on cabins.

Paddling over to the salt chuck.

Inside the Salt Chuck--there is a narrow (15 foot?) entrance

that opens up after you pass through a channel of maybe 100

yards. The incoming tide fills the salt chuck and as the tide

drops, the entrance actually becomes a rapids as the water

funnels through the narrow channel and the depth drops.

There were lots of birds--meganzers, goldeneye, scaups, &

surf scoters inside. We also saw several deer along the shore.

We still have a lot of snow around the lodge!