Friday Fun Day-Kayak season begins

Two weeks ago we had planned to take a weekend outing, but everywhere within driving distance was either raining or snowing, so we stayed home and Calvin had an epic end of the season ski day.  This weekend we thought about taking a trip again and the weather was nice everywhere. I looked at a few locations thinking about what we would like to do, biking for Calvin and kayaking, and decided Reno was the best location for both.  It was a good decision.

Friday we went to Pyramid Lake. It is a good "early/late" season choice because the elevation is lower than Lake Tahoe.  It was a beautiful clear day, not too many boats on the lake, but the shore was thick with fisherman.  Fortunately with our sleek little kayak we can leave the crowd behind. You can see "the pyramid" of Pyramid Lake in the background.

Anaho Island in Pyramid Lake is a bird sanctuary with one of the largest nesting colonies of the American White Pelican. We didn't see large numbers of pelicans, but enough to clearly identify them.  The challenge with trying to photograph flying birds is that they are flying, but we pointed the camera in the general direction and actually caught one in flight.

Photoshopped so you can tell it is not a gull.

Pyramid is beautiful in a serene desert sort of way.

I'm practicing my backwards photography.

This is forward photography, but a little blurry.  I was trying to take a picture of a fisherman sitting on a chair on top of a ladder fishing, but I missed him.  There were ladders all along the shallow water where the fishermen would sit in chairs to fish.  Already by Friday afternoon the beach was wall to wall RV's. We weren't the only ones who thought it was a beautiful day.

Saturday we went to Lake Tahoe.  While the temperatures in Reno were in the mid 80's, the Tahoe forecast was for the high 60's to lower 70's.  I thought that might be a little cool for kayaking, but it turned out to be one of the nicest days we have ever spent on the lake.

Fay and Vance Gabbart went with us, which made it even more fun.  Calvin took this picture, which makes it look a little like they are paddling up hill.

We had perfectly smooth water, warm weather and gorgeous scenery. This is the view headed toward Chimney Beach, so named because there is a chimney on the beach.

Still working on my backwards photography.  I forgot that I had zoomed for a previous shot and I got lots of pictures of Calvin's elbow.  Part of the beauty of practicing photography in the boat is that Calvin paddles while I get a rest.

We were headed back here and I missed Calvin all together except for his hat, but the mountains look good.

Another shot of Fay and Vance.  We were paddling at about 6pm.  I have never seen the water this still in the evening at Tahoe.  What a great day!