Flood stage

This was a bad week to be running late and have to leave without the waterproof camera box. The weather was pretty calm, and even though the water was still in the 30's, the air was in the high 60's, so I could paddle without gloves.

The lake was over half a foot over flood stage. The road to the launch at Kingsland Bay was partially flooded, but passable.

We headed south. One bay was reputed to have a blue heron rookery. With the high water, we were able to paddle through the trees and I got directly under a couple of nests. Herons can get pretty shy in the water, but in the trees they didn't seem at all concerned with us being under them. There were also a few osprey, and one substantially larger that was probably an eagle. Like I said, bad trip to be without a camera.

Half a foot over flood meant the lake was around 6 feet over the typical summer level, so we saw some boathouses with only a couple of feet of their doors showing, and some camps with water up against the siding.

With the warm weather I found it easier to roll without a hood, and got in a few variations in both directions. Since the water temp still suggested drysuit and fleece, there was a lot of rolling just to cool off.

One interesting thing about posted land here is that it only applies over the high water mark. We saw some signs almost under water, and you could paddle past them until you hit open water again.