A change in plans

The weather has been warm and sunny this past week, so I put the racks on my SUV, loaded up the kayak, and was looking forward to a leisurely paddle, the first this year, at Lake Natoma. There was a bit of a breeze as I was loading up my kayak, but when I got to Willow Creek at Lake Natoma, the wind was starting to pick up even more.

I debated for a few minutes as to whether I should even go out or not, but decided to go for it. I wanted to paddle to Negro Bar to check out the dock for a friend who needs a place to practice with her dog who took dock diving lessons and who will be competing in a few weeks. Well, I did go out, I did paddle, and I did turn around after 45 minutes or so...it was so windy out there that it was hard to paddle. Plus, I try to use some sort of judgment when I go out by myself to stay safe. Today was not a day to be paddling by myself.

So I paddled back to my starting point, packed up the kayak and drove home disappointed my paddle was cut short. Oh well. As I was unloading my kayak, I thought it would be fun to take Hope out for a quick swim before it was time for me to go pick up Nick at our co-raisers house.

I think the dock will be nice for Hope's buddy to practice his dock diving. And frankly, I'm hoping if I take Hope out there with me, she will learn how to dive off the dock! As you can see, even though I was throwing sticks a few feet off the end of the dock for her, she ran back down the dock to get the stick from the water's edge rather than just jumping in from the dock itself.

Oh well, maybe she'll get the idea someday...



Here's Hope at the dock...