Kayaking Lake LBJ - Day 1

Finally!

It looked like today would be the day we would finally get back out to paddle on a lake.  Our campground, Sunset Point RV Park, in Marble Falls, Texas, is on the shore of Lake LBJ, one of several lakes near Austin formed by the damming of Texas's Colorado River.

We couldn't get out early, however, because it was cold this morning.  Our low was 35F, and it didn't get over 60F until after 1pm.  Further, the winds remained high this morning after yesterday and we wanted to wait until the breezes died down to less than 10 mph.  We occupied ourselves with other things this morning, and even tried lunch and a beer at the local DoubleHorn Brewery in Marble Falls.

Once we returned home, it was about 63F and winds of less than 10 mph, so it was Go! for kayaking.  We could carry our kayaks over to the lakeshore to put in, which was a real treat.  Here, Kathy is putting hers into the lake:

The breeze was heavier than we anticipated, and our kayaks were rocking and rolling as we started out onto the lake.  We got a great view of the granite bedrock outcropping at our campground:

We don't think we've seen as many waterfowl in any one place, as here at Lake LBJ.  We startled three great blue herons, and we saw hundreds of coots.  Here, some of the coots flew away from us as we approached:

We explored the shoreline.  Here, Kathy poses against the granite bedrock outcropping:

Further around the point, we got a view of the campground boat dock --

-- and Kathy loved that little palm tree so much, she insisted we take this palm tree selfy:

We continued around the lake and got a close look at the dam, which provides hydroelectric power to the local area:

After inspecting the dam, we decided to paddle across the lake, into the wind and the choppy waves.  Here's Kathty pausing to rest in her paddling labors:

Having made it over the open water to a nearby peninsula, we rested, and Kathy inspected some tall ornamental grasses growing on the lakeshore:

We discovered an apparent pirates' den:

The sun was starting to fall to the horizon, and it made for a very tropical scene as it posed behind this small island populated only by several picturesque trees, accompanied by a little grass and a few birds:

This portion of the lakeshore is heavily developed with large, expensive houses.  While they have decimated the natural lakeshore, they have a picturesque beauty of their own:

After a two hour paddle, we returned to our campground and its small, grassy beach, where we put in, hauled our kayaks back to our campsite, and settled in with Baxter for another beautiful happy hour.