Canoe Date

We put in on Grindstone Lake at the landing and took the shoreline to our right till we came to the channel.  By the time we got to the channel a rain storm was coming up so we motored through quickly to find shelter under the bridge.  We weren't the only boaters looking for a dry place to wait till the cloud went over. 

A boy in his fishing boat came in under with us from the other side, pulling his craft in under him walking his hands along the ceiling of the bridge over us.  Next three people in a canoe already soaked from the downpour came in and pretty well filled up the usable space left for sheltering.

We left the bridge as the sun was coming through and found our way over into Courderay Lake.  As soon as we got over the sandy shoals there we were into the waters of Courderay Lake.  The storm had picked the waves up so our course across was fun with a few white caps.  Elv likes flat water best when he is navigating the canoe but I enjoy the waves meeting us and exploding almost to the top of the canoe.  I trust Elv's driving and the water was beautiful: grey under the cloudy skies to our left and blue under the blue sky to our right.  You can't get a picture of that sort of thing, so I didn't try.

We channeled under another bridge and were promptly in the Little Courderay Lake.  We were looking for the St.Francis Mission there a little out of our way to the Billy Boy Flowage, but I wanted to see it from the water side.  I was disappointed with it...could hardly see it from the lake.  So we went back down the shore to our next channel and bridge dumping into the Billy Boy Flowage. 

Do you see the rainbow on this picture? It stayed a long time and was rather showy. 

We caught a few fish there.  The flowage is a wide swampy looking lake, long like a river and eventually dumps over a dam down on Rt 27 and into the Courderay River.  We found panfish, little sunfish and bluegill, and bass that were never big enough to keep.  The big one got away snapping Elv's line completely. We came home with a dozen fish which he immediately cleaned and added to Lance's fish frying for supper.  

 

There were whole "fields" of these flowers all along the edges of the lakes and channels.  I kept taking pictures of them and in the sunshine couldn't tell if I was getting anything nearly as impressive as they are in real life.    We covered a little over 13 miles of water in our canoe, a perfect way to spend a summer Saturday.