Hemlock High Water

After the flooding rains during the week the sun finally decided to reappear and Cody called to see if I wanted to paddle Hemlock on Sunday. The answer was an enthusiastic yes and we met Ron at noon. The water was still real high, more than I have ever seen at the lake, we put in at the north end and headed south. The first stop was at Stony Beach and our favorite lunch site by the creek for a quick lunch then up the hill to look for the first of four geocaches. It was a no find on the first. We then headed south by Eagle Cliffs and viewed the many waterfalls along the way. We finally turned around about 4 miles down and headed back north. On the way back we hit three more caches and found them all, hint: at Hemlock Falls 1 DO NOT GO UP THE CREEK BED, we climbed to a point it got dangerous and gained no ground so we scaled the bank and hiked along the top of the ravine and made the find. After 8 miles of paddling and another mile of hiking up and down the steep hill side we headed home and finished the evening with grilled salmon, portabella pizzas and conversation. Most excellent day!!!

First sail of the year

I met Ron at Vitale Park in Lakeville, rigged and headed south. The wind was up and down and switching directions but generally westerly and we made decent progress down the lake. We got about 4 miles down the lake, headed to shore for a break then when the wind started picking up headed back north. It was a much quicker trip back up the lake and we were back in no time. The water was cold but the sun was warm and the winds were fair. A good start to the season.