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A Most Nature-Filled Outing

The range of nature you can see from the urban Potomac is quite amazing.

Thursday night's PoG kayak outing was called off due to thunderstorms. I left my boat on the car when I got home figuring that, Friday being a day off for me, I'd spend some time on the river in the morning. I launched from Columbia Island at about 7 AM and headed upriver towards Fletcher's Cove. It was a pretty morning and needless to say, I soon spotted the "usual suspects" of nature - ducks (with cute ducklings!), great blue herons, geese and cormorants.
Swan on the Potomac

Roosevelt Island Deer
Things started to get even better when I spotted a single mute swan off of Roosevelt Island. I paddled over to get a closer look. The swan was not bothered by my presence and continued feeding. After spending some time enjoying its grace and power, I started back upstream and almost immediately spotted several deer feeding by the shoreline on Roosevelt Island. I got a pretty good look at them, too before they turned skittish and retreated. As I continued up the river a bald eagle swooped by overhead. I spotted more deer along the shore above Georgetown.
Georgetown Deer

I had hoped to land at Fletcher's cover for a coffee break but the tide was out, exposing squishy mud flats which I would have had to have crossed to get to solid ground. I decided to forgo landing and turned back downstream. I had paddled upstream using my wing paddle. Part of the reason for choosing it was to convince myself to sell it, since I make only very infrequent use of it, but somehow on this outing I really got into the swing of the stroke (wing paddles have a unique and different feel) and made good time going upriver. I was enjoying the wing enough that I decided not to switch back to my regular paddle for the return trip and instead continued with the wing to the very end.

Coffee Break at Roosevelt Island
On the trip back I once again saw deer off of Georgetown (probably the same ones I saw on the way up).  The highlight, though, was spotting a deer swimming from the Virginia shore to the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. Some rec boat paddlers happened to be on the scene as well, and we all watched the deer swim its way across then bound off onto the island. Cool!

Deer Swimming in the Potomac

The Swimming Deer Bounds Ashore

Glowing from the number and unusual nature of the morning's wildlife sightings, I picked up my paddle and made my way back to the marina. About 10 miles in all.
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Location: Arlington, VA, USA

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