Now that the snow-melt water in the lakes is starting to warm up for the summer, we made our first paddling foray of the year. Hosmer is one of our favorite lakes to visit in that it is relatively close to Bend, yet tucked away enough that it does not see the traffic of say Sparks Lake or Devils Lake. It's also the lake where we see the best wildlife and wild flowers.
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| South Sister and Broken Top from Hosmer Lake |
Ann got a chance to dust off her paddleboard and start to work on the balance that had surely rusted during the long winter. While it was beautiful out on the lake and a day on the water is always great, it was mainly a bust for me.
Right off the bat, in picking up my kayak, I badly injured my back (to the point two days later as I write this, I can hardly sit at my desk to type) and had to endure two hours of excruciating pain as I tried to paddle. In the brain fog of the pain, I failed to mount the keel fin on the bottom of my inflatable kayak. As an inflatable, it rides higher in the water than a hard-shell kayak (but it stores in the limited space in the garage so much easier). Naturally, it was a quite windy day and the kayak was nearly impossible to control, the wind pushing the high-riding watercraft around in 360-degree circles every few yards.
To make the day even less bright, there were almost no waterfowl or marsh birds to see and on the banks, there was a dearth of flowers. Mainly, once we got to the largest, most open part of the lake, I sat and let the wind take me where it would, watching Ann paddle about and the trout breaking the surface every few seconds to score some insect or another. It was quite peaceful, just not the day that I had anticipated.
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| Leaving the Boat Ramp into the Bright Morning Sun |
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| Ann and Mt. Bachelor |
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| Ann in Front of South Sister |
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| Ann out Where We Usually See Eagles, Not Today |
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| Heading Back to the Truck |
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| Yellow Pond Lily, Nuphar lutea, Only Color to be Seen |
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| Still Life with Cow Parsnip, Heracleum maximum |
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| Bright Spots of Burgundy, Purple Marshlocks, Comarum palustre |
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| American Bistort, Bistorta bistortoides |
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| Female Ring-Necked Duck on a Log |
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