Paddling Around Promised Land Lake

Tuesday, June 29, 2021, our last day in Promised Land State Park.  Luckily, the morning weather was sunny and clear.  We highed our way to the beach at Pickerel Point and threw our kayaks in the water.  Out we paddled to explore the large lake:

The large lake is perhaps seven miles in perimeter, so we decided to focus our efforts on the most interesting parts of the lake, since we wanted to finish before lunch.  Here, Kathy sets our course for the south shore of Conservation Island:

Before the lake was created, the trees that occupy what is now the lakebed were logged.  Most of the stumps ended up under water.  However, near the shore, some stumps peeked up above the water and provided enough moisture and dead wood to nourish new growth on their tops.  These "flower garden stumps" can be very pretty.  Here's one example --

-- and another:

Kathy continued to lead us west across the lake, being careful to avoid those remnants of fallen trees that still stick out of the water:

Water lilies grace some sections of the shoreline, and, where they do, we get a pointilistic painting of green and red pads, graced by occasional white flowers and yellow bulbs:

Kathy found this one ghostly-looking stump which lurks less than a foot above the surface, camouflaged by a spread of water lily pads:

An oriental image of grace and beauty:

These bulbs were in various stages of eruption, but looked like completely different species.  They seemed like shapes from another planet:

We reached Conservation Island and tried to paddle all the way into the bridge that supports the hiking trail in to the island.  We couldn't make it all the way.  This photo is from the nearest point we could reach before grounding the kayaks:

Kathy led the retreat from Conservation Island as we turned our attention to circumnavigating the island and heading over to the Day Use beach:

After 1.5 hours of steady paddling, we reached the Day Use area, beached the kayaks, and enjoyed the view back across the lake:

Having rested our arms and sitting bones, we re-embarked on the lake, encountering this mallard sitting as still as a carved statue on a submerged stump near the Day Use area:

Following the north shoreline of the lake, we retraced, on water, in reverse, the path we had travelled on our bikes the day before.  Here, Kathy approached Ridgefield Point's boat ramp before continuing on toward Whittaker Lodge and returning to Pickerel Point:

Unexpectedly, we were greated by a welcoming committee when we returned.  They inspected our kayaks, asked for landing fees (which we did not pay), and saw us on our way as we pulled the kayaks out of the water.

Now there was nothing but to reload the kayaks on the Jeep, return to camp, say goodnight to the summer moon, and wake to start our move on to the Berkshires in Connecticut.