Paddling the Ausable River and Estuary

Yesterday, we paddled Taylor Pond to fish for trout.  Unfortunately, we caught none, although each of us caught a pretty perch.  Normally, once we've paddled on a given day, we don't go out paddling the very next day.  But the weather today, Saturday, September 4, 2021, was so nice, that we thought we should take advantage of it to paddle the Ausable Estuary, where the North Fork of the Ausable River empties into Lake Champlain.

We got three different paddle experiences in one.  Our first experience was filled with wind and waves on Lake Champlain itself, when we launched from the beach at Ausable Point:

We could see Vermont and the Green Mountains on the far shore as we grappled with waves as large as on some of the ocean bays we've paddled:

Our second paddle experience was against the current and wind, up the Ausable River, to the right in the photo below --

-- and our third was in the still waters of the Ausable Estuary, behind Kathy in the photo below:

Having worked our way around Ausable Point in Lake Champlain, we paddled up the Ausable River, past the state park campground on our right.  It took no time before we left civilization behind and had the quiet and space to enjoy a wilderness experience, including this beautiful wildflower --

-- and this giant turtle who obligingly posed until we could get a good photo.  Maybe he was simply defending his favorite perch from all interlopers, even those large humans:

Great blue herons are normally very shy and skitty about humans nearby.  We rarely get within 100 yards of a great blue heron before it flees, leaving us with a blurry, long-distance shot of it flying away into the sky.  Not this fellow.  He waited, calmly but suspiciously, until we got within only 20 feet or so, and gave us this great portrait:

Nature was busting out all over, including a little garden starting a new island on this fallen log:

Yet another large turtle sunned himself stolidly as we passed:

Autumn is starting to show itself here, up near the Canadian border.  We saw early color in some trees, and already too many leaves had fallen into the clear waters of Ausable River.  The golden sand below the crystal waters made a glowing backdrop to this solitary floating leaf:

We paddled about 1.6 miles up the river, and then turned around to float back down.  We eventually reached our old friend Great Blue Heron, who by now had flown to the opposite bank.  He was a little less patient with us than in the first pass, but he still let us get close enough to snap a decent portrait of this regal crown prince of the river:

We returned toward the mouth of the Ausable River North Fork, and the view of the Vermont shoreline was even clearer than when we had started our adventure:

We turned south into the estuary, where lilypads and marsh grasses graced the margins of the water, rather than the rocks, soil, logs and bushes we found on the river:

A cormorant stood sentry over us, making sure that we were not doing anything to threaten the wild quiet of the estuary:

How could we spoil what was so perfect?  The sky was blue, the clouds puffy, the water still and clear, and the grasses fresh and tall:

Some trees were already trying on their Autumn wardrobe:

It seemed like such a short paddle, but before we knew it, 2.5 hours had passed and it was time for us to return to the beach, haul our kayaks home and take the cats out for their Happy Hour walks.  The wind and waves had grown stronger, and, once we worked our way out into the lake, directly opposite our landing spot on the beach, we felt like we were surfing our way in to the sand, effortlessly, carried on the crests of the ranks of waves, dancing their way into the shoreline in the brilliant day.