Fountainhead Foliage Paddle

 As has become something of a tradition, I paddled at Fountainhead Regional Park the other day to do some leaf peeping. I just looked back at the blog and found entries for foliage paddles going back to 2008. I started the blog in December of 2007, so it's possible I was doing Fountainhead foliage paddles even earlier - I don't remember.

It was fun to look back at the old entries and see the names of people who had participated in these outings: Dave, Cyndi, Kingsley, Deke, Peter H3, and of course Tall Tom. Alas, all of the people mentioned have either moved away or stopped paddling (I don't know what happened to Deke - but I never run into him any more) and so, not for the first time, this year I went out on my own. At the launch I did bump into two Waters Edge paddlers, one of whom recognized me. As is embarrassingly often the case, I had no idea who she was, though once she told me her name (Madeline) I kind of vaguely remembered her. The other Waters Edge woman was considering buying a kayak from Madeline, and the two of them were there to do a test paddle. There were also some other paddlers and paddleboarders about. With the water temp being just about 60 degrees, I wore a wetsuit, even though the air temperature was forecast to hit about 75 degrees. Needless to say, no one else on the reservoir was wearing any cold weather gear.   

I've written about this outing so many times I don't have much left to say about it other than to post some pictures. I will say that I picked a perfect day - breezy, but sunny and warm, and the colors were really popping. I kayaked between 6 and 7 miles (I turned around just past the bend where there's a house high up on the bluff). I actually thought I had gone further, but I guess kayaking into the wind on the way out really slowed me down - well, that, and constantly stopping to take pictures with three different cameras (the waterproof point-and-shoot I keep in my PFD pocket, my "good" camera, and even my iPhone, which I rarely pull out on the water for fear of losing it). Here are the best photos from each of the three cameras:

Panorama (iPhone)

Basic foliage shot (point-and-shoot)

Fisherman ("good" camera)

When I got back two guys were loading a small canoe into the back of a pickup truck. Well, one guy was doing the bulk of the loading, while the other guy looked on. The onlooker turned to me and said, "I can't do much to help - I'm 83 years old." My response was that just being out there at age 83 canoeing the lake on a beautiful day was good enough! Those kinds of guys are my role models.