Kayaking to Lake Erie

Something happened this morning that hasn't happened in a very long time--chill bumps. It was nice to be chilly this morning! We've been traveling through some warm weather, and everywhere we go, we are told that this seems to be the hottest summer the locals remember. They also say that last winter was one of the warmest as well. So we enjoyed the chill bumps, and waited until later in the day to head to the river.

We are always looking for a good place to kayak, and we found information on-line about a route on the Vermilion River that would take us all the way to Lake Erie. So we drove to the little town of Vermilion to pay our $3 kayak launching fee. Denisa made friends with the harbor master's golden retriever. The dog loves for someone to throw his tennis ball, so he has an excuse to leap into the water to retrieve it.

We were told that heading north from our launch point would take us to Lake Erie, so we headed that way first. We are impressed with the flowers in the towns in Ohio, and this bridge was adorned with some giant baskets of flowers.

We headed past the Vermilion Yacht Club. Our little blow-up kayak was dwarfed by the yachts moored along the pier.

We have a new word to add to our regional vocabulary. The locals call these watery inlets into residential neighborhoods "lagoons." Houses lined the lagoons that branched off the river like water-filled streets. Boats were parallel parked in front of each house on the lagoons.

A mile down the river brought us to the mouth of the river and the wide open space of Lake Erie. We have paddled our way into another of God's wonders as we enter this natural lake. 

Even though Lake Erie is the shallowest of the great lakes, it seems huge when we can look ahead and see no indication of land in front of us. As we paddled past the breakwater, we got a taste of the waves on this lake. Just as it looks more like an ocean than a lake, it also has ocean-sized waves. The weatherman had predicted 2-4 foot waves on the lake today, and that seems a little unnerving in an inflatable kayak.

After a quick spin on the lake, we headed back south into the river again. It seemed that every square inch of the river-side had a boat parked in it. But as we headed south out of town, the views changed from nautical to natural.

We were joined by geese that didn't seem to mind us getting close. This pair cruised beside us for quite some time, escorting us south along the Vermilion River.

We had been told about the twists and turns of the river, and the five rock faces we would paddle by before the Vermilion river gets too shallow to navigate. Sure enough, several miles later the kayak was dragging on the river bottom when we turned around to head back to town.

The clouds were clearing and we enjoyed bluer skies on our paddle back to the car. We dodged another bullet today, as the scattered showers seemed to miss our path. We were joined by a flock of ducks, waddling out of the water as we floated by.

We always enjoy a nice kayak ride, and this was a very interesting paddle with lots of neat landscapes. We are still enamored with living so close to such a big lake, so actually kayaking on one of the Great Lakes was special for us. After we put the kayak away, we headed to the Vermilion beach, where their lighthouse is standing in front of the museum in front of Lake Erie.

The gray skies were replaced with blue, and we couldn't help but notice all the huge hanging basket of flowers throughout the town of Vermilion.

Some of the baskets of flowers are of epic proportions. We don't think we've ever seen such a big ball of petunias before. They must like the moisture from Lake Erie! The baskets around town really decorate this little hamlet nicely.

We enjoy driving the back roads and floating the rivers of new places. It helps acquaint us with our latest section of the country, and we are surprised by how much Ohio has to offer to wanderers like us!