Extreme Kayaking

Okay not really. But it was extremely hot kayaking.

Team Essence, middle-Tennessee's premier militant sea-kayaking organization, re-traced a route taken way back in May '09, paddling Old Hickory Lake from the Cedar Creek Recreation Area west to the Shute's Branch Recreation Area. We knew we were in for a treat when we stepped in the lake to launch and it felt like tepid bath water. With temperatures in the 90's and humidity at about 174%, paddling was brutal. Heck, movement was brutal. Normal protocol, when faced with such conditions, involves a shade tree, a hammock, and a large glass of iced-tea. Last year, we ran the approximately nine-mile stretch in 2 1/4 hours, but today it took us a half-hour longer. More stops for water. More stops for shade. More time to contemplate baby Jesus as the threat of heat stroke loomed larger.

And people wonder why we tend to do things slower here in the South.

Click pictures to enlarge.

⇒ Click here for my web album of pictures from the paddle. ⇒ Click here for Jimmy's web album of pictures from the paddle.

One positive outcome was that I finally got close enough to see and photograph more clearly the mysterious water birds mentioned in two past posts (here and here). The birds are... drum roll please... double-crested cormorants! How satisfying to finally put that one to bed. Click this sentence for all you'll probably ever want to know about double-crested cormorants. In retrospect, I realize that my past identification difficulties stemmed from searching mainly cranes and herons as keywords.

Speaking of crested birds... we began our paddle alongside a couple of white ducks, and one of them looked like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as played by Tom Hulce. I mean, the dude duck was obviously wearing a piece to impress his lady friend. Turns out though that it was just a crested white duck, bred to have plumage atop its head. Neither Jimmy nor I snagged a close-up pic of the duck, but below is a close approximation taken from Google Images.

GPS Capture of Old Hickory Paddle, August 11

Old Hickory Run

I made the trip up to Old Hickory Lake today for an early morning paddle. Since I was kayaking with a friend, we were able to manage a point-to-point trip rather than a loop. We launched at the Cedar Creek Recreation Area, a Corps of Engineers property, where quite a few facilities are available right next to the lake. I noticed a well-kept campground, a pavilion, a playground, and a beach. The area definitely seemed like a place worth revisiting this summer. Since we paddled north up and over a peninsula, our take-out was less than five-miles away at the Shutes Branch Recreation Area where there are several fishing docks and a boat ramp. Both the put-in and take-out are just off of Saundersville Road on the south side of the lake.

Saundersville Road Paddle at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Conditions were fantastic. It was overcast and cooler, and the sun never broke out of the cloud cover while we were on the water. Total paddle time was around 2 hours, 15 minutes, and our distance traveled was 9.3 miles. We averaged a little over 4 mph despite a few stops for water, a bite of food, or some sight-seeing. This paddle reinforced the idea that it is very easy to cruise around 5 mph in the Essence, but any faster speed requires considerable effort.

I had a new dry pouch for the Garmin GPS handheld. The unit is purportedly waterproof, but my main fear was that I'd drop it overboard, and it would wind up on the bottom of a lake. In the new bag, a Seal Line "See Pouch," the Garmin has even more water protection, and it should float if I somehow let it out of my grip.

 

Just before we reached our take-out, as we were passing by Harbor Island Yacht Club, we spotted (actually, I heard it first) a small island with trees full of vocal birds. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to be in the middle of their spring nesting. They were wading birds of some sort, related perhaps to herons, and I wish I'd gotten a clearer picture so I could make a positive identification. Everything resembling them so far in my bird books does not appear to be indigenous to this area.