Paddling Boyden Lake

 Sunday, May 7, 2023

Hi Blog!

Spring has finally caught back up to us in Maine. With temperatures in the 70s, we decided to take our kayaks out for a spin. We found a little lake not far from our campground.

Boyden Lake is located in Maine’s Down East region, not far from the US-Canada border. Covering 1,759 acres with a shoreline length of 11 miles, Boyden Lake is home to a wide variety of recreational activities. Today's activity is energetic paddling.

While the temperatures were pleasant and the sky blue, the winds were very brisk.

As we began our adventure, we thought fighting the wind would be great exercise, but we soon realized it would tire us out pretty quickly - and, with whitecaps on the water, the cold waves kept splashing into our kayaks, making for mild hypothermia.

We turned our attention to the shoreline, where we would find shelter from the winds.

Swimming, boating and sailing are Boyden Lake’s most popular diversions, as is fishing for smallmouth bass, landlocked salmon, chain pickerel, largemouth bass and white perch. We watched a father and his two kids anchor their boat and grab their rods. The three of them cast and they each caught a fish at the same time.

We did try to get some wildlife photos. However, the local residents are rather shy. If you look carefully, you can see a Canadian Goose. That's a close as we could get.

Out of the wind, we enjoyed a leisurely paddle along the shoreline.

Boyden Lake Association claims that their lake is the easternmost lake in the U.S. We could neither confirm nor deny that claim. However, we did learn that Maine has over 6,000 lakes.

We also learned that Boyden Lake has several loon families. It was either too early in the season or they were hunkered down out of the wind. We were not able to spot any loons.

The warm temperatures are bringing out more signs of Spring! Grass is growing, leaves are popping out and bugs are hiding under the brim of Dave's baseball cap!

Before long, it was time to head back to the boat ramp.

It was so nice to be in shorts and sandals. Tomorrow is expected to be another nice day. We hope to get out and explore more of the Cobscook Shores Park System.