Paddling Hurricane Creek and Rockcastle

We made reservations to stay at Prizer Point on Lake Barkely in order to have a chance to paddle our kayaks, but the wind was too strong -- and the temperatures too cold -- until today.  Today, we had balmy weather:  80+F temperatures, light winds and beautiful skies, so today was the day to haul out the water stuff!

We love being able to launch our kayaks directly from our campsite:

The early morning sky still had dappled clouds, which reflected in the still water of our little bay of Lake Barkley, known as Hurricane Creek:

Our campground is part of a large resort that also boasts a large marina.  We paddled over by the boat slips and marveled at this large dinner-cruise-type boat, obviously meant for leisurely sailing on the larger lake:

The campground also has a large swimming area, and a dock around it suitable for light water craft to tie up casually during the day:

But it wasn't long before we left "civilization" behind.  Hurricane Creek is wonderful to paddle because it is not heavily developed; we encountered wildlife everywhere.  A large number of turtles were out sunning on floating logs, given the sudden warm, sunny day after so many days of poorer weather:

Kathy spotted a pair of pelicans bobbing about in the bay, which we thought unusual.  We followed them, trying to catch up with them as they warily swam away from us.  Eventually, however, we got close enough for a decent photograph.  Soon after this, they lost patience and flew off to quieter sections of the bay.

We also didn't expect to see anhinga, but, to the contrary, we saw several, including this one who had been drying his wings and started to take flight from us as we approached:

It is still early Spring here in southwestern Kentucky, and there are few blossoms extant.  We saw these delicate yellow ones along one shoreline:

We rounded an island at the inner end of the bay, and Kathy started fishing for bass, while David continued along the shoreline trying to catch other prey -- such as this small lighthouse on private property --

-- and this birdhouse, which was occupied by black birds, perhaps starlings, who yelled at the photographer as he approached their home --

-- and this beautiful hand-crafted swing handing fetchingly from a tree on a small point in front of one property:

As we said, Kathy had started fishing, and she turned to concentrate on her bass-luring strategy:

She succeeded in catching one smallish bass, who she admired --

-- before cleaning and flouring for a scrumptious lunch along with some saag paneer:

After lunch, we headed back out to paddle into the main section of Lake Barkley and south toward Rockcastle, the bay immediately to the south of ours.  As we paddled down the campground shoreline, we spotted its sign, along with a marker noting that the campground sits at Mile 55 on Lake Barkley, for those campers who want to arrive by boat:

The winds had risen during the afternoon, and we paddled against southerly breezes of 8 mph, gusting to 17 mph:

We suddenly flushed two black vultures who seem to have been startled by us, and may have been poring over some scavenged meal.  One flew away, but the other flew up to a nearby tree and kept an eye on us while we passed, to be sure we didn't try to poach his meal:

The bay we paddled to this afternoon is named Rockcastle, after an unincorporated community, most of which was flooded and submerged with the damming of the Cumberland River to form Lake Barkley.  Lore has it that the community, in turn, was named after a rock formation knows as Castle Rock, which would have loomed above the community.  We were pretty sure that this rock formation, being so different than all of the geology we've seen in the area, must be the still-visible top of the original Castle Rock formation:

Indeed, a small park with boat ramp, swimming beach and picnic facilities protects the rock formation.  We stopped to stretch our arms and legs, and then started our return, ready to fly downwind rather paddle against the breeze.  Here, Kathy paddles with great anticipation under an overhanging tree branch as we turn back north toward Hurricane Creek:

We happened upon a flock of geese that had repaired to the lake to escape someone with a large riding lawn mower who was noisily trimming the grass in his lakeside yard.  Two of the geese flew away as we approached:

Throughout the day, we have seen osprey fishing and nesting, but we were not able to get a decent photo until this last chance as we rounded the final point before approaching our campground.  This osprey pair guarded its nest as we paddled by, keeping a close eye on us.  Because they didn't abandon the nest, we thought it might be possible that an egg was present, but we could not tell for sure.

We returned to our campsite, arms weary, pleased with this day of paddling, having covered about 6 miles all told.  As David writes this blog entry, Kathy is out trying to catch some more bass during the 2 hours before sunset.  We'll see whether her foray is successful.

P.S. Kathy came up empty. Better luck tomorrow.