I went out to kayak on Bull Run Creek early yesterday afternoon and got caught in a wicked thunder and lightning storm. I saw it coming but have not been out paddling much this summer and felt the need. Plus, I had packed everything up and headed off to my launching point without paying any attention to the weather. I figured I owed it to myself to get totally soaked for not thinking ahead and checking it out.
I had a really great paddle…but as soon as I first got on the water, I realized I needed to get close to the shore where the tall trees were so I wasn’t sitting in the middle of a body of water like a lightning rod. Once I got to the shore, on which I really could not land because it was too steep, I pulled in under an old derelict dock which protected me from a good part of the downpour.
I still got cold and wet and had to soak up the water accumulating in the bottom of my kayak with a towel and wring it out over the side. I have found that having a small towel on board can come in handy for things like that.
This is what my view was for at least 30 minutes.
Rain On You Crazy Droplets.
Truly in my elements.
The weather got better. I was in and out of sprinkles for an hour or so after I broke out of my shelter but eventually the sun came back out. It worked out perfectly for me since I never got too hot. I didn’t see a single person during my adventure accept for two guys in ponchos on a fishing boat coming down the river in the pouring rain. I am not even sure if they saw me hiding out underneath the dock. No waves were exchanged, other than those on the water and their wake. No catfish or dolphins were hurt.
I saw numerous Great Blue Herons, a few Green Herons, some Ospreys including an immature, Kingfishers, Killdeer, Great and/or Snowy Egrets, deer (which I rarely see from the trails in that area), and the always present Mallard Ducks and Canadian Geese.
I saw one Turkey Vulture flying up to its perch high up on a tree on the way up river. (The tree was not on its way upriver, I was.) On the way back down I saw two more sitting in a tree branch high above me. I guess they figured I was a goner. Wrong!
The calm after the storm.
Great Blue Heron on the run.
And, on this muddy reflecting pool, we have the Bull Run Memorial Tree.
