Kayaking on Sudbury River

日本語は英語の後にあります。

Kayaking on Sudbury river was fun! I saw cute muskrats!!! Muskrats were the highlight of this kayaking!

On a chilly Saturday we went kayaking on Sudbury river near Concord. Of course whenever we go or pass Concord, we stop by Haute coffee. I got pour over coffee. Then headed for Sudbury river. 

On this day there was flood warning on Sudbury river. Indeed the river was flooded. The trees are in the water. Looked like that trees were in the middle of river, but obviously trees are supposed to be on the ground. How much water increased! Wow. Kayaking under river was even barely possible. 

Due to rain on past previous few days the current was also very fast. Paddling counter-current was tough. We usually go paddling against the current first, so that the way going back will be easier. So first half was hard. Besides....I usually paddle by myself with 2-person kayak to record on my Runkeeper app on counter current. This day's counter current was so hard! Mr.N offered me to paddle, but I refused. I think that I need to paddle by myself to record as my own activity. I like graphs and numbers for my activities, I always want to paddle by myself for 1 mile. It is also a good challenge to paddle alone. I love challenging. 

While we were slowly moving forward due to current, we spotted something swimming. It was a muskrat! It was my first time seeing a muskrat. The way it swam was very cute! I love mammals living in the water, including dolphins, whales, and manatees.

As the name indicates, muskrats are a kind of rat and considered rodents. The tail was not see when they are swimming, but when they are on the shore, I noticed that their tails are like ropes. 

A little after first spotting of muskrat, we saw another one running on the shore. This one was on the ground and running. Then it jumped into the water. Since there were bushes close to the shore, we couldn't go close to the muskrat.

Then we saw the last ones! Two!

Muskrats

Two muskrats were on the small island. I guess probably their home was flooded and the thing they were on was the roof of their home. Their home entrance is in the water and the room is above water. So their room was probably full of water. Actually they sometimes went into water and brought more branches. Probably they were working on fixing the home. Poor muskrats. Most of their homes were probably flooded and that's why we saw many muskrats on that day. 

Swimming muskrat

When we got close to the island, one muskrat went into water and started swimming. Swimming muskrats are so cute!

Not only muskrats, the scenery was good as below picture. 

Pretty clouds

 とある日曜日にサドベリー川へカヤックへ行った。 

ハイライトはマスクラットを見たこと！とってもかわいかった！

サドベリー川はコンコードの近く。コンコードといえば、そう、私のお気に入りのコーヒー店オートコーヒーがあるところ。もちろんそこでポアオーバーコーヒーをいただいてからカヤックへ。

この日のサドベリー川は洪水注意報が出ていて水がすごい量だった。水が多くて橋の下をカヤックで通るのもギリギリだったくらいだ。

数日間の雨のおかげで未だに水の流れが速い。我々は通常、川の流れに反してまずカヤックすることにしている。その方が帰りが楽だからだ。なので行きの半分は非常に大変だった。さらに、１マイルだけは私が一人で漕ぐことにしている。なぜならランキーパーというアップにアクティビティの記録をしたいからだ。やっぱり一人で漕がないとそこはチートになると思うのでそこは頑なに一人で漕ぐことにしているのだ（たとえMrNが漕ぐのをヘルプすると言っても）。MrNによると私が頑固らしい（笑

そんなこんなで漕いでいると何かが水の中を泳いでいるのを発見！マスクラットだ！初めて見た。水の中で生きる哺乳類はみんな可愛い。イルカ、クジラ、マナティーなどなど。。。

そしてまたしばらくして今度は川辺で違うマスクラットが走っているのを発見。そしてそのマスクラットは水の中に入り水草の間を泳いで行った。草が多くてカヤックで近くには行けなかったが可愛い。

そして折り返し地点の後に２匹のマスクラットを発見！小さい島に２匹でいる。かわいい。どうやら彼らの家が洪水になってその小島はおそらく屋根だと思われた。マスクラットの家の玄関は水の中で部屋は水の上（木で覆われている）。多分水量が増えて天井（屋根の）一番高い部分がちょこっとだけ今は水面上に出ているようだ。マスクラットたちは木の端を持って来て修理しているようだった　（１枚目の写真）。

カヤックが近づいていくと水の中にジャンプし泳ぎ始めた。泳いでるマスクラットはとても可愛い。

マスクラットに４匹も会えたのが今日の収穫！とてもエキサイティングだった。もちろん３枚目の写真のように景色も綺麗だった。