Kayaking@Powder Mill Pond

Recently my foot skin was removed (just a small portion), because I exercise at home with barefoot. Obviously the workout was too intense for barefoot. Jumping lunges, jumping squats made the skin removed. It made walk a little hurt. Basically it was similar to having blisters. Due to the situation we went kayaking instead of hiking. 

Powder Mill Pond, Hillsborough County, Southern New Hampshire
Pond and River, Out and Back 
Distance: 7.5 miles
Paddling time: 2.5 hours

Powder Mill. Why Powder Mill? I looked it up, but there was no information on Google. My guess is that there was a powder mill factory or something around there. Now Powder Mill Pond serves public water source, which means water is clean and clear. 

Launching area

There were no many people paddling, actually only a couple of kayakers who were fishing. This pond is more famous for fishing. You maybe able to see a fishing kayak on the above picture. Good thing is that no motorboats were there. Motorboats makes kayakers less peaceful. I prefer calm paddling. Here I enjoyed calm and quiet water. Even more quiet area was the river section connected to the pond. On the river trees were very green and the reflection made the river look like green carpet. It was pretty.  

GREEN!

We started kayaking with another group of fishing kayakers at the same time and we finished at the same time. It was a nice afternoon. 

Kayaking @Neoponset River

We went kayaking in Massachusetts. Since this day the weather forecast was shower in the White mountain area, we chose to stay in Mass and did a small kayak.
Neoponset river is just 30 minutes drive from Boston. So we could sleep in. To go to the Whites we need to get up at 3:30 a.m.
Sleeping in, Mr.N had blueberry pancake as a stereotypical American, I ate rice and natto with green onion with fish as stereotypical Japanese, we went out for river. 

The launching area was a bit tricky. First of all, this area is poison ivy habitat, which concerned me. Indeed Mr.N found some poison ivy. I was very careful not to touch any plants to be safe. 

The river is nice. Both sides are full of lush green leafy trees. Those green reflect on the water and everything was shining in green, which was pretty. Summery view in Mass. At the same time tough part was that the river is very shallow and sometimes too shallow to kayak. Another challenge was many dead trees were floating in the river and avoiding them without making damage on kayak. In fact after 2 miles we had to turn around, because all the river was blocked by dead trees with many branches. 

Dead logs was a hardship, however, that brought fun as well. A lot of turtles were soaking up sun on those logs! We saw from big ones to small ones. Fun fact: sometimes small one is sitting on a big one. Once I saw a bit one trying to climb on a small one....poor tiny one.  

One of them was the highlight of this kayaking. A very small one was enjoying sun on the old tire (somehow abandoned in the river). Usually when a kayak is approaching, turtles are jumping into water and immediately disappear. This tiny turtle, somehow, not really scared, and it went into water at last minutes. In the water it was not scared much and just floating around near the tire. It is not common for kayakers to spot swimming turtles, but this time we enjoyed observing small turtle swimming. Its head was in the water for a couple of seconds, then come up above water to breathe. As we left I looked back and saw the turtle came back on the tire. The turtle seemed to fond of the tire very much. Cute!

Although this river had some difficulty, it was nice to see this cute one. 

Kayaking on Blackstone river/Great Meadow

More social distancing! Kayaking on the weekends. 

First one is blackstone river and canal. This is in central Mass. Blackstone river is a very shallow, and quiet river. "Nice!" I thought at first. Then, 0.3 mile of kayaking, we had to land, carry kayak on the stairs to walk over the dam. Grrr. This was a tough part. The kayak is heavy on the stairs. For sure it was a good training for arm muscle. 

Quiet Water

Other than that, the kayaking was nice.  The water was extremely calm and quiet. It was a sunny day without winds, meaning perfect for kayaking. One challenging part was that the water was too shallow sometimes and had to find a way for a deeper water portion. It was an adventure. 

Below 2 pictures are nice red-winged blackbird and a heron. Nice to see them. More kayaking, I have more opportunities to see red-winged blackbirds. Then more and more convinced that blackbirds are real bullies. They chase big birds aggressively. I saw they chased away herons, who are at least 5 times bigger than them, and also chased away hawks. It is funny. 

Flowers for sure

A couple of weeks later, we went kayaking on Great Meadows National Refuge. We had kayaked in the Great Meadows before, but we did a different portion this time. Now we saw flowers that were not bloomed last time. They are flowers for sure, but I don't know what flowers (the left picture). Please let me know if you know! Nice purple ones.

Canada Geese

Clouds formed

Then a Canada geese family! A couple of weeks ago we saw a Canada geese family, but that time babies were much much smaller. However, this time babies were almost the same size as mother! Wow. Only evidence they are babies of the mother was following mother. Probably they need to move to south where there is no winter, so babies need to grow quickly. Long journey ahead for them. After a few hours of kayaking, we saw thunder clouds formed and heard thunder in the distance, so we kayaked back to the starting point and left. 

Relaxed kayak!

Kayaking @ Quaboag River

blue sky blue river

We went kayaking on Quaboag river two weekend in a row. There are many animals including birds, beavers, and muskrats. 

heron

First weekend we went east side of the river, then the following weekend we kayaked into the west side.  The river was blue with reflecting blue sky. It was really lovely than I had expected.

As this area is a designated as wildlife refuge, we saw many birds. First bird we saw was a heron. They like to be along the river. We saw them sometimes fishing. Ummm. River fish sashimi....

It is interesting that herons are always being alone. In contrast, ducks are always being as a couple. 

heron

One time we saw a heron flying from rive side and flying over to the hills and the big heron was chased by small red-winged blackbird. Red-winged blackbirds are only 10% of bodysize of herons, but they are so aggressive! The heron chased by a red-winged blackbird had to fly to escape from it. 

ducks

Next cute ones were duck mother and babies! 4 babies! Babies' fur is fluffy is so cute. I wanted to pet them but limited myself from trying so (they are wild). 

Other babies we saw was beavers. It was on the top of other side from our kayaking side. Wow. 

This is a good kayaking area with full of lives. 

Kayaking @ Tully Lake

Another kayaking!

Now snow is melted: trails in New Hampshire have more people. It is difficult to conduct social distancing on a narrow, steep trails. Compared to that, kayaking is much easier to have enough distance from other kayakers. Now our weekend activities are kayaking.

Sunny day

Today we went kayaking on river and Tully lake. We had emailed before if it is open and allowed to kayak. They said yes. The reason why we checked in advance was that the launching area was closed a week before. This time we made sure it was open and also we planned a back up place. Luckily it turned out to be a sunny warm day.

blue bird

Today we kayaked 6.6 miles, out and back, consisted of river portion and lake portion.
The highlight are animals.
First we saw a blue bird. The bird's silhouette is cute. Also without seeing their bodies we heard many birds' songs. 

red-winged blackbird

The next bird was red-winged blackbird. It was on the branch and calling a lot. Nice to see that. 

heron

Lastly we saw a heron. I took a picture it just left the rock.  It was big. 

Observing birds are relaxing and nice. Also just floating on a kayak  adds extra relaxing feeling. 

Birds are exciting, however, today's highlight of the highlights is a beaver!!!! It was my first time seeing a beaver. I have seen many beaver dams and beaver lodges but beavers themselves never came out and showed up. This time we spotted a beaver on the shore eating something! (right picture). 

A minute later he went into the water (the left picture), and started swimming. Since beavers can't breath inside the water, the head was out, but sometimes all the body was under the water. For example, there was log floating on his way, he went under the water to pass it. He swam very well! We kept a distance with him and continued observing. He swim fast!!

After I checked the recording of our kayaking, he swam 0.2 mile and disappeared, probably he landed somewhere.
He looked like he knew where he was going and had a very solid plan. Very cute and exciting!

Hope I will see a beaver again!

Kayaking @ Sudbury River

As I wrote in a previous entry, we got a new part for our broken kayak. Meaning we can go kayaking again. We chose this time Sudbury river, which is only 30 minute drive from Boston. 

First we went to the launching area we planned. We found more than 5 cars there and a group of 5 people was launching a boat. It looked like they might need more time. We didn't like the crowded launching area during this pandemic, so we went to another launching area. Another one was only 7 minute drive from there and there were only a couple of cars. We looked nearby and we found a place where we could launch around 100 meters away from the normal launching area. That way it was possible not to contact with any other strangers! Why not did that?!

Swan

First animal we saw was a swan. The entire 6 miles of kayaking there was only one swan. Maybe he needed solitude, or social distancing. Swans look like aristocrats. They can swim as if nothing is going on. They paddle hard under water, but no facial expression change, which is a real aristocrat.

Muskrat

Then next animal we saw was a muskrat. He was on the log floating on the river. It seemed that he was eating plants. Realizing a kayak coming, he swam to his home! So cute. I had never known about muskrats until I started kayaking, but now I see many and I like them. 

The next animal we saw was Canada geese. There were a lot of them. Cute. Then the next was turtles. They like to be on the log in a long line. Cuties. Sometimes small turtles are on  big ones. What funny about turtles is sometimes a big turtle is on a smaller turtle. Poor small ones!

Bird

Finally, we saw some birds, but heard a lot of birds. Here the area is Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge. Therefore many birds live there. It was nice to hear the birds. The left picture is one of the birds I could see. Can you see a bird?

Kayak with pump

As I wrote before here, we had air leaking problem. This time a good thing is that our new tube worked well. It was nice to paddle all the way without leaking air. Just in case we carried air pump on the kayak, as you can see on the right picture. 

While we were packing up our kayak to the car, we saw two kayaks went by the river. Hmmm? Two kayaks were tied. The second kayak was just pulled by the first one. Parents were paddling on the first one and the kids were on the second one and was pulled by the first one. Wow. Spoiled. 

Kayaking @ Nashua River

Kayaking is a great activity in the COVID-19 outbreak. Kayaking is much easier to comply with social distancing practices. Hiking is also good outdoor activity, however, as snow melt in New England, more people come out for hikes and now it is hard to have enough distances from others on narrow trails. 

Thus we went kayaking on Nashua river. We started in the city of Pepperell, which is 50 minute drive from Boston. This time we kayaked out and back, total 7 miles. 

Launching area

I was a little worried about launching might have other cars. Luckily there was no cars. The right picture is the launching area. The sign of river was funny. Between "NASHUA" and "RIVER" there was blue line. I first thought that somebody's vandalism. Then I realized that it was a drawing for river😆

Swan

We saw swans and geese. Actually I had never seen swans in California, but here in New England there are many opportunities to see them. 

Tree reflecting on the river

On the way kayaking was smooth and enjoyed a lot. Water was calm and trees on the shore was reflecting on the river. The hard part was the latter half coming back to the launching area. Why?  Because the air was leaking from the kayak! Our kayak is an inflatable one. Every time we start, we pump it up. Our pump has a gage of pressure and we always have air at an ideal pressure (1-2 psi). Luckily the holes were very little, so we didn't sink. However, even with little leak, less air makes kayak move forward much less. To make kayak move ahead, we needed to paddle much harder. Mr.N had a harder time, because his section (rear) sunk more than my area (front) due to his weight is heavier than mine. 

Upon coming home we found some holes and patched, but there was still leak. We called the company and sent pictures. They tried to argue that we didn't pump the air at the right pressure and asked if we used the pump with gauge to measure pressure. We sent our pump with a gauge. Actually our pump is their brand! So they couldn't argue more and they sent a new part of kayak. Yay the squeaky wheel gets the oil. We can go kayaking again with new part we got. 

Kayaking on North Conway Lake

Our priority for the weekend activity is backpacking. If Saturday and Sunday are both sunny, we go backpacking. If only one of them is sunny, we go day hiking or kayaking. We mostly go hiking, but it is also nice to go kayaking. Variety is good. 

A weekend in September, we went kayaking on North Conway Lake in New Hampshire.  It is in the town of Conway and the lake is very close to Maine actually. 

First 2 miles only I paddled. Even though our kayak is for 2-person one, I like to paddle by myself for a little. For my solo part I like to record the activity with app called Runkeeper. It records where and how the activity goes with GPS. 

My activity log

Since I paddle at the front of 2-person kayak, it is difficult to go straight. It is hard to keep straight from front. Kayak or canoe, direction control is mostly done by a rear person. For that reason, my kayaking record path is very wavy. It is very funny. 

As you can see in the left picture, my line of paddling is left-right-left-right.....due to this I paddled 2.5 miles, but maybe less than 2 miles of actual contribution of the whole trip. Importantly, however, I didn't paddle on the ground as indicated by red line. I think that GPS was not accurate or shape of lake is not correct on the map. By rain it is easily bigger on the day of kayaking. Or the size of lake gets different as time goes by.

After I paddled 2.5 miles, Mr.N took over and now he paddled for a while by himself. I ate sandwiches, and drank water and chilled. It was a princess time. Mr.N paddled 2 or 3 miles, then suddenly got cloudy and very windy. Due to that we decided to go back. Unfortunately winds were against us to go back to the starting point. It was better to go back as soon as possible, so we took the straight line: meaning paddled in the middle of the lake. Usually it is better to paddle along the shore as you can see in the GPS log above, but sometimes it needs to be flexible. 

Winds made a lot of waves on the lake, so our kayak bounced a lot. We got wet, but paddled together as strongly as possible. After an hour of hard paddling, we safely arrived at the parking lot. Wow. What an adventure!

９月のとある週末、ニューハンプシャー州にあるコンウェイ湖へカヤックへ出かけた。

MrNと私の週末のプランは、もし土日とも天気が良ければバックパッキング、もし片方だけ天気が良ければその日にデイハイクかカヤック。デイハイクに行くことの方が多いが今回はカヤックすることにした。バラエティに富んだアクティビティが我々は好きなのだ。

我々のカヤックは２人用なのだが、最初は私一人で漕ぐことにしている。筆者は記録が好きでランキーパーというアップでアクテビティを記録している。やはり自分の記録となるので一人で漕がないと自分の記録にならない！ということで最初の２、５マイル（４キロ）は私一人でのカヤック。上の写真がGPSでの記録。ぎゃー。酔った人の歩いた記録みたい。。。GPSが悪い。。。のではなく、GPSは正常かつ正確。２人用のカヤックを一人で、しかもフロントの席で漕いでいるとなかなか真っ直ぐ進むのが難しい。通常カヤックは後ろの席の人が方向をコントロールしているのでこういう結果になった（笑

そして４キロ漕いだ後はMrNにバトンタッチ。ここから私はしばしリラックスタイム！至福の時だ。まず、ランチに持ってきたサーモンサンドイッチをカヤック上で、しかも湖上で食した。美味しい。贅沢な時間だ。

そしてMrNが４−５キロ漕いだので写真でも撮るかなーと思っていると、なんだか急に雲が出てきて一気に風が出てきた。しかも風は逆風。逆風に向かってスタート地点に引き返さなければならない事態に。天気が悪いのですぐに戻った方がいい。ということで湖の岸沿いに漕ぐのではなく最短距離の湖の真ん中を突っ切ってスタート地点に引き返すことに。

風が強いので湖の波も大きくカヤックも揺れまくった。２人がかりで筋肉痛になるまで１時間一生懸命漕いでようやく元の場所に戻ることができた。ついた時は身体中濡れていた。ぎゃー。予期せずすごいアドベンチャーとなったが。。。楽しかった。

Kyaking on Assabet Riber no.2

<Japanese version is after English 日本語は英語の後にあります＞

We went kayaking on Assabet River again. It is the second time kayaking on Assabet River, but on the different section. 

Assabet River is running in the town of Concord. 

Concord...as now you know, Concord has my favorite coffee place, Haute Coffee. Today instead of pour over, I tried cappuccino. It was really great. Also as usual I got a scone, which was great as well. 

Then we headed for the boat launching area for Assabet River. Actually only kayak or canoe can launch from there, since it is very small area. 

Soon near the launching area, one guy was fishing and said hello. 

He said,  "It reminds me that it is time to get out kayak."

Yes, finally kayaking season has started this month in New England.

Pleasant kayaking day

The river's current was bigger than the previous region of Assabet River we kayaked. It was a little hard to paddle on a counter current plus against wind. However, it was more interesting than the previous section, because there are many small marsh area to kayak. We saw many turtles and birds. Blue sky reflect on the water and it was very pretty as shown in the picture above. 

Today I recorded for 30 minutes kayaking activity not my one-person paddling, but two-person paddling. So it was much faster even if counter current with winds. (Again, the activity is "rowing" in this app, because no kayaking options).

Near the destination we were thinking there was a really strong counter current portion. We tried, but current was too strong, so we decided to kayak back from there. There are many birds in this are, but swans are always very nice to see. There was one swan swimming. It was exciting to see one.  

 

Then, we saw a scene. There was a hawk and there was a duck nearby. Then the hawk caught the female duck. The pair male duck must have been run away successfully. Then the hawk dragged the duck and started eating. Wow. Poor duck. It is very rare to see wild hunting in front of me: it was an experience. 

週末、再びアサベット川へカヤックへと出かけた。アサベット川でのカヤックは2回目だが、今回は違うセクション。

アサベット川はコンコード市の近くにある。コンコードといえば。。。私の大好きなコーヒー屋がある街だ。もちろんまずオートコーヒーで一服。今回はカプチーノとラズベリースコーン。どちらも格別の味だった。

そして川へと着きカヤック開始。前回カヤックした場所よりも潮の流れが大きい。なので流れに反してカヤックを漕ぐのはややキツイ。漕ぎ出してすぐに川沿いで釣りをしている人がいた。”ハロー”と声を掛け合う。男性は、”あーカヤック出さなきゃだ、思い出したよー”と言っていた。ニューイングランドではやっとカヤックのシーズンが始まったところなのだ。

少し漕いでいると青空が出て来た。青が水に映ってとても綺麗だ（写真１枚目）。

この日は前回と異なり、２人でのカヤックをランキーパーというアップで記録してみた（カヤックした一部分だけだが ）。２枚目の写真がそのレコード。かなり潮が激しかったため、１人で漕いだ前回の記録より１、５倍の速さという結果だった。このアップでは潮に向かっているか潮に押されているかとかの記録ができないので数字だけではあまり結果を判断できないなと思った。

そして目的地の橋に近づいたところで潮が異常に激しくなり前に進めなかったのでそこから引き返すことにした。帰りには白鳥が見られた。やっぱり鳥の中でも白鳥は優雅で見れると嬉しい。

そしてそのあと、衝撃のシーンを目撃した。

鷹と鴨がいるのでカヤックを止めて見ていると、わー！鷹が鴨を捕まえた！そして鴨を引きずっていき、食べている。グワァーーすごい光景だ。なかなか自然界での狩りを目の前で見ることはないのでこれはすごい経験だった。４枚目の写真は、見にくいが、鷹が草むらの中に鴨を引きずっていき、食べている様子。

今回も楽しいカヤックだった。

Kayaking on Lake Massabesic

<Japanese version is after English: 日本語は英語の後にあります>

We went kayaking on Lake Massabesic in New Hampshire. 

Starting point

At first at the launching area, I noticed there are many signs. No swimming, no wading. More specifically, it says "No Part of Your Body can Touch the Water". Kayak users are required to use rubber boots to get on it. 

Probably because this is for drinking water source for people in Manchester, which is one of biggest cities in New Hampshire. 

I was thinking, "Wow, strict!"

Then, a person came with a dog, and he went to the launching area and push his dog into water. The dog bathed in water then came out. The doggie shake his body. Then, again the dog went into the lake. The dog's whole body was in the water. The dog was not interested in water and tried to go straight to the trail in the forest, but the owner pulled the dog to the lake. Then dog was pushed into the lake, IN FRONT OF the sign "No part of your body can touch the water". 

Funny. This is the New Hampshire's attitude, "LIVE FREE OR DIE"

GPS tracked first 2 miles

Then we started kayaking. This lake is very big, so we did half of the lake this time. First 2 miles, I paddled by myself. (our kayak is 2-person's) and recorded with an app Runkeeper. The left graph is the GPS tracked 2 miles. The bottom of west side of  peninsula is the starting point. It was hard for me to keep the kayak straight. That's why the red lines left-right wobbling, like a drunken person's walk. 

One of the reasons it was hard to keep straight was that the rear portion of the kayak was much heavier than front. Obviously Mr.N's weight is 130% of mine. Also we had 4 litters of water at the rear.

Then, the east side of the peninsula, there is a portion the red line is not connected. The reason is that my iPhone was overheated by strong sun on the kayak and stopped working. Actually I was paddling alone for the portion without red line. 

I put the phone in the insulation cool box for the portion without red line and then iPhone started working again and started recording again. So I am declaring here I paddled more than 2 miles. 

The weather was really nice. This lake is good for kayaking and fishing. I saw small fish swimming. They are cute. Some people were fishing on the lake. 

Water is calm unless motor boat pass by, and there are some loons. Once we were really close to loon. She just came out from water with fish! 

Nice relaxed Saturday. 

週末にニューハンプシャー州のマサべシック湖へカヤックへ出かけた。

ボートの乗り入れ場に着くと５−６個のサインが（１枚目の写真）。色々な禁止事項が書いてある。水泳や水遊びは禁止。カヤックに乗り入れる時はブーツを履いて乗り入れること。そして体のどの部分も水に触れてはいけない、というサインが。ここの水は近くにある大きな市の飲料水として使われるので汚染に気をつけているからこのような注意事項があるのだと思われる。

ほー、厳しいなぁ。などと思っていると、犬の散歩をしている人が通り過ぎた。犬はどんどん先にひっぱって行ったのだが、飼い主の人が犬を引っ張り水際まで連れてきて犬を湖に入るように促した。もちろん暑い日なので犬は湖に全身浸かり、出てきてプルプルっと水を払う。そしてもう一度水の中へ。

え〜。このサインの真ん前でそれする？（笑

思わず笑いそうになった。さすがはニューハンプシャー。この州のモットーは"LIVE FREE OR DIE"。自由に生きるかそれとも死ぬか。アメリカの独立の際のモットーが今でもここでは受け継がれているのだ。例えばニューハンプシャー州ではバイクに乗るときにヘルメットはつけなくてもオーケー。

犬の飼い主はまさにこのモットーで生きているっぽい。

そしてカヤックスタート。最初の３、５キロはアップを使って記録。この記録中は２人用のカヤックを私だけで漕いだ。２人用カヤックを前で一人で漕ぐとまっすぐ進むのが難しい。左側の赤い線の記録が酔った人の千鳥足のような記録になっている理由だ。

そして赤い線が繋がっていない部分：ここはiPhoneが強い日差しでオーバーヒートしてしまいアップが動かなくなっていた部分。iPhoneを凍らせてきた水のそばに置いてクールダウンさせたら再び動き出したので記録を再開。

この湖は水が穏やかで綺麗だ。魚が泳いでいるのも見れたしルーン（鳥）も５−６匹いた。景色も綺麗でカヤックや釣り、セイルボートには最高の湖だ。

リラックスできた土曜日だった。

 

Kayaking on Grafton Pond

<Japanese version is after English: 日本語は英語の後にあります>

We went kayaking on Grafton Pond in New Hampshire. 

The highlight of this kayaking was baby loons! 

Activity log

This lake has nests of loons and it is protected well. Some portion of the pond is prohibited from entering by kayaking or boats. There is a lake host sitting on the boat launching area and she was checking everyone's kayak, canoe, or boat and making sure any residue from previous activity is contaminating into the pond. To be honest, we thought at first "dammit they are collecting money", but turned out to be free. 

The entire kayaking was about 5 miles. I recorded 2 miles of the kayaking. The word, pond sounds small, but actually this pond is big. Some local people came here for kayaking, canoeing, and fishing. Some people are laying down on the shore to tan and chat.

When we started kayaking, the lake host said that three baby loons were hatched a week before. I was excited about seeing baby loon on mother's back. 

The baby loons we saw were probably different ones who were born last week, because they were already swimming. However, they were with still fluffy puffy fur. Two adults and two babies were swimming together. 

The babies are cute! Probably a little too big to be on mother's back. 

Someday I really want to see little babies on mother loon back. 

土曜日にニューハンプシャー州にあるグラフトンポンドへカヤックへ行った。今回ほハイライトはルーンの赤ちゃんを見たこと！

このポンドにはルーンの巣があり、保護地区になっている。ポンドの一部はカヤックやボートが立ち入り禁止になっている（その区域にたくさん巣があるため）。さらにレイクホスト（ボートやカヤックを乗り入れるところにいる人）がカヤックやカヌーをチェックし前回行った湖からの植物や水が残っていないかをチェックする。そういったものが持ち込まれるとこの湖の環境を変化させる恐れがあるからだ。レイクホストがいたのでお金を徴収されるのかと思ったが、、ボランティアだった。レイクホストによると先週３匹の赤ちゃんが孵化したそうだ。

この池の周りを一周カヤックすると約７、５キロ。ポンド（池）と言っても広い。最初の写真は最初の３キロ程度を記録したもの。

そしてルーンの赤ちゃんを発見！大人と違って茶色のふわふわした毛。かわいい。。赤ちゃんだがもう泳いでいるので１週齢の赤ちゃんではないと思われる。母鳥の背中に乗るのには重すぎるようだ（笑

まだ泳げない年齢の赤ちゃんルーンは母鳥の背中に乗って移動するらしいので、是非ともいつかそれを見たいものだ。

 

Kayaking in Medfield

We went kayaking on Charles river in Medfield. Medfield is a southwest of Boston. It takes about 50 minutes of driving from Boston. 

Charles river is famous in Boston, but that same Charles river is in the Medfield, too. Much quieter and in the forests in Medfield. 

On lazy Saturday, I slept in, then went to BODYPUMP class at the gym. Then, we went kayaking. The weather forecast was rain and thunder, but it hadn't come yet. Accuweather said at least 3 hours free of raining, so we got outside. 

After BODYPUMP, I hadn't had food: so I ate on the water. Egg and vege sandwich. Tastier on the water.

Luckily we saw two muskrats swimming on the river. Also I saw an entrance of their home! There is grass on the entrance. It looks comfortable home. How cute. 

Then the app told us the thunderstorm was going to come in 1 hour, we headed back. We noticed that the kayak air pressure was lower than usual (our kayak is inflatable kayak). So same paddling strength made it slower than usual. 

After back home, Mr.N heard hissing noise from kayak and put a patch on the hole. Now it was fixed...however, now it is a concern to go further from the launching area. 

We are debating the future directions.

Options are:

1. Tell REI it was less than 1 year after purchase and see if there is product's problem.

2. Purchase normal plastic type kayak

3. Don't care and kayak with this inflatable kayak

To be determined....

先週の土曜日はメッドフィールド市のチャールスリバーにカヤックへ出かけた。メッドフィールドはボストンの南西にある小さな市だ。車でボストンからは約５０分ほど。

チャールスリバーといえばボストン市内を流れる川として有名だが川は長く、メッドフィールドの方まで続いている。ボストンのチャールスリバーと比べてここでのカヤックは静かだ。

この日の土曜日は雷雨の予報だったのでいつもより朝遅くまで寝てその後ジムでボディパンプのクラスに参加（ボディパンプは全身の筋肉を鍛えるプログラム）。そしてジムから帰った後もまだ雨も降っていなかったのでカヤックへ出かけることにした。

お昼を食べ損ねたのでカヤックでサンドイッチを頬張る。カヤックの上だといつも以上に美味しい。

マスクラットが２匹ほど泳いでいた。可愛い。泳いで行った方を見ると岸辺にマスクラットのおうちが。入り口には草で作られたカーペットが。居心地良さそう。 

３マイルほど進んだところで１時間半後に雷雨が来るとのアラームがあり、引き返すことにした。そこでカヤックがいつもより空気の圧力が低いことに気づいた。カヤックが通常より沈みがちだったのだ。穴が空いているのかも？カヤックが沈みがちなせいで漕いでもスピードがあまり出ない。（我々のカヤックは空気を入れるインフレータブルのタイプ）

この日は特に問題もなくローンチングエリアに戻ってきたが、家に帰って小さな穴が空いているのを発見した。

今後どうするか。。。購入したお店に文句を言うか。。新しいインフレータブルでないカヤックを買うか、パッチを貼って修理はできたのでこのまま気にせず使うか。。。

悩むところだ。

Kayaking in Whitehall State Park

<Japanese version is after English 日本語は英語の後にあります>

There are many places to kayak in New England. 

This time we went out for kayaking on the reservoir in Whitehall State Park, which is located in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

Hopkinton is a city about 30 miles west of Boston. I had heard about this town before moving to Boston. Actually only two cities I knew in Massachusetts were Boston and Hopkinton. Why Hopkinton? Because it is a starting point of Boston Marathon. My friend used to tell me about this town while our Friday's morning runs. It took 40 minutes to drive to Hopkinton from Boston. I was thinking, "Wow. Boston marathoners run fast! Elite runners can run the distance of 40-minute drive in less than three hours!"

On this day the weather forecast was rain with thunderstorm. So our original plan was not going outside. However, it was not raining in the morning. Why not kayaking then!

Whitehall State Park

We went to the Whitehall State Park and started kayaking. Surprisingly some people were fishing out there. Probably two or three fishing boats were there. 

The lake was interesting. As you can see in the left picture many leaves were floating. Also it is hard to see from the picture, but there are very dense plants inside the lake. It looked like there was another forest in the underwater world. The dense plants in the water should be moose's favorite food. I wish they were in Mass. 

These leaves on the water have two kinds of flowers. Some yellow, some white. 

Flowers on the water is really nice. Especially seeing them from kayak on the water.

On the contrary of the weather forecast, blue sky emerged (right picture). It was nice to see unexpected blue sky. However soon after we heard the thunder sound in the distance. We kayaked out along the shore, but immediately we kayaked back straight to the dock. It was much shorter if go straight back. Luckily we deflate and got in the car, the first rain dropping came.  

On the way back home, we stopped a coffee shop in Hopkinton. The table was a chess table and I played the chess for the first time. Next time, I WILL beat Mr.N. 

ニューイングランドはカヤックする場所がたくさんある。湖、川、貯水池など。

今回はマサチューセッツ州ホプキントン市にあるホワイトホール州立公園の貯水池でカヤック。

ホプキントンはボストンの約４５キロ西に位置する市。この市のことはボストンに引っ越す前から知っていた。決して大きい市ではないが、マサチューセッツ州で知っている市はボストンとホプキントンの２つだけだったのだ。

理由は、ホプキントンはボストンマラソンのスタート地点だからだ。ラン仲間と毎週金曜朝のランニンングでよくボストンマラソンの話をしたものだ。ボストンからホプキントンまでは車でも４０分かかるのにこれを３時間以内で走ってしまうエリートランナーはすごいものだ。

この日の天気予報は雨＋雷だったので当初はアウトドアアクティビティは控える予定だったのだが、朝起きて見ると曇りだが雨は降っていなかったので急遽カヤックすることにしたのだ。

誰もいないかと思ったが意外にもこのホワイトホールの貯水池ではすでに何艘かの釣りボートで釣りをしている人たちがいた。

池には葉っぱがたくさん浮かんでいる。名前は知らないが趣がある植物だ。この植物、黄色や白の花をつけていて綺麗だった（１、２、３枚目の写真）そして写真では見れないが池の中もたくさんの植物が。松の木のような植物が水の中にたくさん茂っている。まるで水の中に森があるようだ。ムース（大鹿）がいたらここはパラダイスだろうな。残念ながらマサチューセッツ州ではもう大鹿はいない。ニューハンプシャーやメイン州にはたくさんいるらしいが、まだ見たことはない。

そうこうしていると青空が見えて来た。予想外の青空はなかなか良い。

しかし予想外に今度は遠くから雷の音が聞こえてきた。池の湖岸沿いをずっとカヤックしていたが、雷を聞いた瞬間に一直線でボートデックに引き返す。直線だとかなり距離は短い。カヤックを片付けて車に乗ると大粒の雨がフロントガラスに落ちてきた。グッドタイミング！

帰りにコーヒー屋で一服。コーヒー屋のテーブルがチェステーブルだったので初めてチェスをしてみた。難しい。。。次こそMrNに勝つ！

2nd Connecticut Lake and Lake Francis

<Japanese version is after English: 日本語は英語の後にあります>

Beginning of June weekend we went car camping and kayaked. 

Usually we prefer to go backpacking rather than kayaking, but this time we decided to car camp and kayak on the lake. The reason is that I had a neck pain (story for neck pain will come soon).

On Saturday we kayaked on the Second Connecticut Lake. Although it is named Connecticut, it is in the state of New Hampshire. Actually it is almost Canada (very close to the border). This lake is in the town of Pittsburg in New Hampshire. It is confusing! The famous Pittsburgh is in Philadelphia, but this is Pittsburg in New Hampshire. Please note the spelling is different. 

Second Connecticut Lake

Going to the lake is via unpaved road. In the parking there are two cars, and they are fishing on the shore next to the parking lot. Those a couple of fishing people are the only humans at the lake. 

On the water, nobody but us.  We kayaked the shore of the lake. It took a couple of hours. The entire kayaking, it was very remote. It is nice to be on the peaceful water.

On the lake we saw loons and geese. Looks like loons were fishing. They are very good at catching fish. Loons sometimes went into the lake for a while. They seem to be able to hold breath for a long time. Then they show up with fish in sometimes 50 meters away. They swim very fast!

The left two picture are the moment the loon went into the water (upper picture) and the came out on the water (the bottom picture). 

Mr.N told me that they can swim but they can't walk on the ground. Interesting. 

 

 

After kayaking, we camped at the campground in Lake Francis State Park. A thing you can do at car campground but not backpacking is BBQ. This time we cooked beef and corn over the fire. Delicious!

The next day we kayaked on the Lake Francis. There are many people on the lake and everyone was fishing. It looked like there are many fish. Ummm. Meat over the campfire is good, but I thought it would be nice to have fish just caught cook over the fire. It made me think about getting fishing license. However I thought twice and I have to go fishing a lot to get worth of fishing permit fee. 

OK. Probably it is easier to buy fish at grocery stores. 

Fishing people were staying on the same spot, so only us paddling and moving on the lake. We explored the inlets and outlets. It was always nice to be on the water. Again we saw loons. 

After satisfied with kayaking, we headed back to home.

６月最初の週末はカーキャンピングとカヤック。

バックパッキングの方がカーキャンピングよりも好きなのだが、５月半ばから首がずっと痛かったので今回は大事をとってカーキャンピング。首を痛めたのはバックパッキングが原因なのだが。。。その話はまたそのうちブログに書く予定。

土曜日は第二コネカット湖でカヤック。コネチカット湖という名前だが実際にはニューハンプシャー州にある。ニューハンプシャー州の一番北で、カナダがすぐそこにあるのだ。このコネチカット湖があるのはピッツバーグという街。ピッツバーグといえばフィラデルフィアにある大きな市が有名だが、ニューハンプシャー州にもピッツバーグが。。。しかしスペルが一文字だけ違う。ぎゃー。ややこしいな。

湖に行く道は未舗装道路。駐車場には２台の車が止まっていて何人かが湖岸で釣りをしていたが、湖に出ているカヤックやカヌーはない。

我々が湖を独り占め。湖はとっても静か。

ルーンを何羽か見た。時々水の中に潜って魚を取っていた。潜ると必ず捕まえている。さらにかなり長い時間潜っている。息、かなり長く止められるようだ。しかもかなり離れたところに現れるので泳ぐのも上手なようだ。最初の３枚の写真が第二コネチカット湖の様子＋ルーン。ルーンの写真は水に潜ったところと水から出てきたところ。

そして近くのレイクフランシス州立公園のキャンプグラウンドへ。

ディナーは肉！とトウモロコシ。キャンプファイアーで調理。

やっぱりキャンプファイアーで焼いたものはなんでも美味しい。バックパッキングではコーンなど持っていけないので（重すぎ）、たまにはカーキャンピングも良いなぁと思った。

次の日はキャンプグランドのそばにあるレイクフランシスでカヤック。カヌーやモーターボートで釣りをしている人が何組かいたが、普通にカヤックやカヌーしている人はいなかった。釣り人は湖に出ても同じ場所に佇んでいるので動いているのは我々だけだった（笑

川が湖に注ぎ込んでいるところを見たり（２つの異なる川が違う場所から流れてきていてこの湖ができている）、ルーンを見たりして午前中のカヤックを楽しんだ。

そして午後、帰路へと着いたのだった。

 

 

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。