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One of my favorite adventures during our vacation last week was an excursion I took in the kayak I borrowed from the cabin's owner. It's just a short, 9.5-foot recreational boat but I decided to take it on a long trip and see if I could reach the public beach that was barely visible in the distance.
Lake Malone was once a network of rivers and tributaries that were dammed up several decades ago. The surrounding topography is rugged enough such that the lake never filled out like some dammed rivers, but instead sports several "fingers". The shoreline is mostly vertical sandstone bluffs anywhere from 10 to 200 feet high! It's amazingly scenic - Amanda's photos from the pontoon boat tour exhibit the scenery quite well.
You can see in this map the approximate route I took while out on the water. Initially my plan was to simply head north from the cabin to the beach near the dam; I figured it might take me half an hour or so. It wound up taking just 15 minutes! Kayaks are amazingly fast, even the stubby one that I was paddling.
I proceeded southwest along the coast, pausing for a few minutes to watch a pair of pied-billed grebes fishing for some breakfast, sometimes as close as 20 feet away! Then I continued until I reached one of Lake Malone's "fingers", an inlet that's part of the state park and doesn't have any cottages on its shoreline. I paddled upstream through the mist - in fact, throughout my entire voyage there was steam fog rising from the calm surface of the water. This inlet was shrouded from direct sunlight and the surroundings had an eerie "Jurassic Park"-like feel about it. Part of me kept waiting for a dinosaur to burst from the trees on the cliffs above!
Despite my imaginary fears I bravely paddled deeper into the mist until the water became so shallow that my paddle hit bottom. I'd now been on the water about 30 minutes - that's all! It felt like a day-long adventure already except that I wasn't tired. In fact, I was feeling very much alive despite the prehistoric ambiance. Several times I drifted close enough to great blue herons that I spooked them into flying away, sometimes remaining perched until I was just a few feet away! If any birds look like dinosaurs, these are the ones.
As I emerged from "Jurassic Park Gorge" I was blinded by sunlight from two angles - the sun from above and its reflection off the water from below. Luckily I brought my sunglasses! Being at this angle relative to the sunlight provided an amazing spectacle I'd never seen before - minature tornadoes of mist! They were invisible with the sun at my back, but were relatively easy to spot (in a ghostly way) with the sun in my face. First just one, and I even paddled through it! I couldn't feel a thing as there was barely any strength to this vortex. What was happening was that the sunlight was heating up the water, the rocky bluffs and the trees; however they all warmed at different rates, creating different velocities of upward-moving air as it warmed in the sunlight. The results were faint, gently swirling but distinct rope-shaped tornadoes. As I moved further out of the inlet and faced a wide expanse of open water, these twisters appeared everywhere! Literally dozens were dancing in front of me - it was an eerie scene as if I were watching the formation of the planet except instead of raging with powerful fury the tornadoes were tiptoeing with delicate grace.
I guess you'd figure that leaving a place that reminded me of Jurassic Park would bring me back to the present, but instead pushed me further into pre-history! However, my hungry stomach reminded me that breakfast was in the near future and it was time to head back to the cabin. Starting from the north shore I decided to hammer the pace and see how fast I could go. What took me 15 minutes on the way out took just nine minutes this time! I could see our dock in the distance and was surprised to see the silhouette of a heron standing on it; however, as I got closer I realized that it was Amanda! Apparently I was still stuck in the jurassic era...
While on vacation last week I took a break from my training regimen, in that I only went for two short runs. Both jaunts were the same 3.7-mile out-and-back course starting from our cabin. On both occasions I brought along my favorite running partner - my dog Haven.
It's probably common knowledge that Kentucky's terrain is far more challenging than what you find in Michigan (at least in the vertical aspect; adventure racers would tell you that Michigan sand, swamps, and scrub makes for an awfully arduous trek). There are a couple good hills near my house here, but otherwise routes are either flat or gently rolling. The route I ran in Kentucky had FOUR good hills, and that was just going one-way; I had to hit those hills on the way back, too! I didn't complain - the challenge was fun and the views they provided were awesome!
Our first run was Monday, when I woke up early and headed out with Haven to beat the heat that was coming later that day. Even at 7am, however, it was still hot and muggy. Our cabin was in the middle of nowhere, which meant that the road we ran on rarely saw any traffic. As a result, Haven got to run the entire course off-leash! She's so smart about running with me by now, though, that she rarely strayed more than 50 feet away and generally kept within 20 feet in front of me on the road.
As we approached one of the several cow pastures along the road, I noticed up ahead on the fourth hill that two cows were in the road, outside the fence. Haven noticed, too, and quickly gave chase! One of the cows immediately ducked under the loose wire fence to the safety of its pasture, but the other cow tried to outrun Haven on the shoulder of the road. Not a chance - Haven was soon on the cow's heels and when the cow realized how close Haven was, it also ducked under the fence to safety. Luckily Haven didn't try to follow them into their pasture! The funny thing is that Haven just wanted to play with the cows!
On our way back as we approached hill #3 again (i.e. the sixth of eight climbs on the run), Haven and I spotted a beagle-hound mix staring at us. Haven paused, watching the dog, then took off in a full sprint to go say hi. Once Haven had covered half the distance between them, the other dog turned and ran away! Now about 75 yards away, Haven turned around and politely (albeit anxiously) waited for me to catch up. As we rounded the bend and started up the hill, the dog came back with enough courage to introduce itself.
The dog had a brown head with big droopy ears and a white body marked with three large spots, two on one side and one on the other. It was a female, and she stood just a tad taller than Haven but appeared underfed and probably weighed just 60 pounds. Because of her big ears and the fact that her first reaction to Haven was "run away!" I decided to name this dog "Bunny".
Bunny had no collar or other identification, but Amanda had seen her in one of the pastures the day before, so I figured she was a local farm dog. Haven and I continued with our run and interestingly enough, Bunny decided to join us! In fact, she stayed with us for the last 1.5 miles and came right up to the cabin's front door - I had to keep her from coming inside! She eventually made her way back home. I wish I had brought some treats with me because I really wanted to give Bunny some food.
Friday was the second run but it was largely uneventful. The weather was just as muggy and the hills just as steep, but all cows were fenced in and Bunny was nowhere to be seen. Haven did manage to get four ticks on her, but I saw them easily on her white fur and removed them before they had a chance to take a bite. Both of our dogs use Advantix which I thought was supposed to repel ticks? Oh well, no harm done.
I went for a run Sunday after we got back home, but boy was my body out of it. I don't know if it was the messed up sleep schedule or lack of training or both, but I just didn't have any energy. I still mustered out nine miles and I must admit that once I was done, I realized that it felt good to run. It was nice to have a very light training week, but at the same time both my mind and my body missed the exercise! Hey feet, it's good to have you back.