A couple hours out on the river

It's ten o'clock in the morning, the sun is shining and the temperature is
already at an astonishing 40 degrees! The van is overdue for an oil change,
last year's garden needs to be plowed under, the windows need
reglazing........and the kayaks are sitting in the garage. Hm.......what's
a boy to do?

Heh, heh, heh.

Hey, Becky, you've never done the river from the dam at Thiensville to Brown
Deer Road, right?

The river is awash with foam below the dam, making it look more malignant
than it ever really is. The effect is heightened by the eddies below a
couple of old snags and Becky's fear of water (no more unusual than a fear
of heights among rocks climbers......and she's been there too) but we press
on. Within seconds we are slowly drifting in the mild current and I suggest
that she back up a bit so that I can get a picture of her with the mouth of
Cedar Creek, spilling in from what looks like it could have been......should
have been.....an old mill as a backdrop.

We chat idly as we watch the odd buildings people have erected streamside
(what is it about rivers that unleashes so many architectural demons?)
slipping slowly into the past as they pass us by.

Ducks. Becky, like so many others, has never really paid much attention to
ducks. At one point, she confesses that she grew up thinking that a
"mallard" was the green headed duck.......it never occurred to her that the
drab colored ducks so often seen in their presence were of the same species.
Today, we saw woodies, hooded mergansers (Becky got them in the
binoculars.......amazing!), the ubiquitous mallards, and what may have
been.....probably were......green winged teal; a different mix (of course)
than I saw out on the big lake three weeks ago, but fun for this early in
the season and impressive for a neophyte. She got a good look at most of
them, as well as cedar waxwings, a cooper's hawk, a rough legged hawk, the
inevitable Canada geese, and a flicker through the binoculars.......which
were never passed back to me during the course of the float. That's
o.k........I've been there many times. We heard but never saw downy and
hairy woodpeckers, cardinals, robins, possibly a red headed woodpecker off
in the distance somewhere, chickadees, and a host of other LGBs. We saw but
never heard a number of gulls, doves, pigeons, blue winged olives and other
unidentified flying objects.

The highlight of the trip for Becky was the discovery (aided a bit by an
experienced observer) of a substantial number of bugs trying valiantly (if,
at least apparently, in vain) to get airborne off the surface of the
stream......no mean feat from all appearances. They were stoneflies. We
saw several dozen, all of them evidently in the same plight. All were
moving slowly across the surface, beating their wings frantically. It
looked like they were trying their damndest to get off the water and get
airborne. In fact, this may have been the case, but it is also at least
possible that they were trying to generate a little bit of heat which would
then allow them to do what it is that they do. Becky decided to rescue the
first one that got close enough. Approaching slowly and carefully from
upstream, she pulled up next to it and crowed delightedly when it scrambled
up the side of her kayak and sat there absorbing heat from the sun. A
minute or so later, she insisted that I perform the same service for
another. I got close enough to slip the blade of my paddle under this one
and then gently deposit it on the bow rope coiled on the forward deck of my
boat. Within a few minutes, both had flown off with Becky's cheers as
accompaniment. Ne'er were stoneflies.....or their spectators......so
blessed. Um......well, the waxwings got some of them.

A couple of side channels, overlooked on my only previous trip on this part
of the river, beckoned.......and I heeded the call. There are several small
seasonal feeders that enter the river in this area and, what with the
mystery and the opportunity to do a bit of icebreaking, I couldn't resist.
Becky, being less experienced (as well as considerably more sensible)
declined my invitations to scoot on up there and see what's to be seen.
Turns out it wasn't much.......just culverts passing under the nearest road,
no more than a couple hundred yards from the main current. Still, it was
fun to get out of the mainstream for a bit.

The rest of the two hour trip was a uneventful as that already described.
What a wonderful day!

Wolfgang