3rd Trip to Lavon Lake - Tickey Creek Park

After a pause for two weeks, we took Emma to Lavon Lake again today - Tickey Creek Park, near the center of the big Lavon lake, at the tip of a peninsula. We got there around 8;30am, it was cloudy, windy, with big waves in the lake, not a good condition for kayaking.

We decided to walk around the shoreline at the park, and found out, at east side of the peninsula, the wind was calmer, and wave was smaller.  A big pleasant surprise to us, this portion of the shoreline has very nice sandy beach! 

We launched Emma from the sandy beach. I found out that I did not bring my camera, then water was coming into the kayak!  3 bottom seals were not fully closed. Without taking pictures all the time, I actually saw more actions in real time!

Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets dotted the water's edge! Some small birds flying around over the peninsular. Fishermen/women on the shore, in the boats and in the water.

Fishermen in the water

Turn around at trees in the water, about a mile north to our launch point. The sun started to peek out through the thinning cloud.

Preselect turn around point  - the trees in the water 

It was clear when we retuned to our launching spot. Walked around the tip of the peninsula after kayaking. 

It turned out everything was all right - we had a good kayaking without sun burns under cloudy sky, and then enjoyed the beautiful lake shores under the sun afterwards.

Lavon Lake near Brockdale Park - a photo journal

 Our second kayak trip with Emma was at Lavon Lake near Brockdale Park.

Brockdale Park is about 3 mile north to Collin Park, where we kayaked on Lavon lake for the first time. What a change the 3 mile make, less populated, less visited, there are a lot more wild life on the shore in this section of the lake!

We started from Brockdale launch point paddling north along the shore (red line), and returned in straight line (yellow)

We met a solo kayak shortly after leaving the shore

Then we saw this turkey vulture on the tip of a post and many more on shore nearby 

Quite a few vultures flapped open their wings, showing off to attract mates?

see solo egret frequently standing patiently by water waiting for fishes to come by. I saw a Egret caught a fish many years ago but not since.

The egret flew away when we got too close for its comfort

A grey heron stood by water edge. The reflection of trees on shore made the water green.

As we turned into the first cove on our route, we saw many egrets on trees and on the shoreline! 

Egrets like to rest on dead tree branches. I wonder if it is easier to see water. If you look carefully you should see a grey heron on the tree as well at the upper right corner of the photo.

A turkey vulture was also on a tree with other egrets

Another group of egrets

A solo kayak paddled much closer to shore than we did. Emma has a guide fin at her bottom, requires deeper water to navigate. So we did not get  paddle too close to shore to avoid being stranded.  We met the kayaer a mid-age woman, face to face later, and greeted each other.

A close up of egrets on the other two trees. 

After the first cove, we continued northward, to the north side of a bridge, into a big cove. There are many dead trees in the cove, and many egrets (again!) on the northern end of the cove. A couple were fishing on a kayak. We said hello to them on the way back.

A soaring turkey vulture or red tail hawk?

On the way back. we saw many turkey vultures were standing on the roof of this shelter. Then a red tailed hawk flew by, the vultures, though larger in size, either flew away, or stepped away from the hawk's landing spot. 

Our kayak was too far from the shelter for my camera to get a close view of the hawk. Upon zoom in on this photo, we saw that the hawk looked exactly the same as the one saw at  our community a couple months ago. The hawk stood there, preening, and looking around. After a couple minutes, it took off, flew away without doing anything else.

There was no speed boat on this part of the lake that morning, but the wind was blowing, and the waves were not small. We paddled hard on the return trip. 

The kayak Emma was steady, stable and broke waves!

Empty Nesters' Camping Trip

We went on a camping trip at Eisenhower State Park during Labor Day Weekend with a group of empty nesters -  4 families including us. 

This is not just any group of any empty nesters, we got to know each other through our youngest children since their kindergarten time through youth soccer team.  As years passing, the bonds between the parents have become strong. We continue to social with each other after the team was disbanded after elementary school, after the boys went to different high schools. We become friends for life!

This camping trip was special in another sense: it is the first social event we had since covid-19 pandemic started in Texas.

Kayaking

We arrived in the early afternoon at the campsite on Saturday, well before the other three families. So we kayaked on Lake Texoma. Rocky shorelines under bright sunshine, kids practicing balance on a stand up board and making faces for my camera, grey herons and snow egrets.... Grey herons were so well camouflaged we were surprised by their sudden taking off a few times as we  were too close to them without noticing them. It was a perfect lake-shore kayak excursion. 

We got back to the campsite around 5:30pm just when the rest of the group were arriving.

Camping 

The other 3 family still have big tents; Our tent is a 2 person tent, we right sized a few years ago when we went to outer bank for a summer vacation by ourselves. We have been camping so many times before - everyone is proficient in setting up the tent. 

2 of the 4 tents

The tent sites are well spaced from each other, and it was densely wooded. We did not experience a lot of bugs/mosquitoes on the first night, but a little bit bothersome the second night. The main issue we had was unexpected bites from fire ants. 

It was pretty cool and dark those nights there, except some noise nuances from a boat dock behind the woods across a cove on the first night.  We had good sleep especially the second night. 

The park has clean bathrooms with hot water shower. It is good for a wildness experience without losing all the amenities of modern life :).

Sleep under the stars, and wake up in the sounds of birds. Very poetic!

Hiking

A main activity for us was hiking along the lake shore in the morning of Sunday. 

The morning was cool, and quiet, the sun was bright. We left our campsite around 8 am as planned walking north on Ike's Hike and Bike trail. The trail is in the woods, and is well shaded, and we were in a leisure pace so we did not feel much heat!

Bird chirping accompanied us almost all the time, and there were wild flowers along the path. We saw black cows behind a fence on a ranch by the trail. The ladies had continuous chat and only the encounter of a family of deer interrupted their conversations, and caused a small commotion.   

We stopped to rest at a cove, about 2 miles into the hike. A big white boat was parked in the cove, adding accent to the lake view! 

Resting on rocks, enjoying beautiful lake view, talking about possible and sometimes wild plans for retirements in future. We stayed there for quite some time, at least 30 minutes. During the time, I saw school of small fishes making splashes on the other side of the cove by the shore, and big fishes jumping out of water a few times as well. A big, nearly transparent fish swam to the shore by the rocks we rested on, but I could not catch it on my camera.

Picnic and etc.

BBQ/Grill is always a big deal for a camping trip. Despite telling ourselves we can not eat much without big boys, we brought too much - pork, beef, lamb, shrimp, salad, grapes, water melons, yams, corns  .... eating and talking till dark when stars appeared overhead.

This was the first time the group camped for two nights, a lot more time to talk. It used to be all about kids' education. Now they are grownups and away. We talked about kids a little bit, mostly other topics  - politics, election, work, health, medicine, spirituality  ..... 

day 1 - before dinner 

Day 2 - potluck

Star gazing

Eisenhower State Park is far away (60 miles) from major metropolitan, and  it is very dark there at night. It was clear night both nights we were there. 

We turned off all lights at our sites each night near 10 pm, and went to an open space and looked up - big dipper was easily identified, and milky way galaxy was clearly visible above our heads. 

I happened to read about galactic year Saturday afternoon - galactic year or cosmic year is the time the Sun takes to orbit the center of the milky way  - it is about 250 million years long! Our solar system is a tiny speck at the edge of the vast milky way.

Every time I see the star filled sky, the mystic outer space, I am in awe, I wonder and ponder. 

Epilogue

Seeing us in our beautiful Emma in water made our friends want to have a kayak as well. One family ordered a kayak similar to ours, another bought a small boat which can be used a kayak/canoe.

We enjoyed our trip together so much, our autumn foliage viewing trip together has been booked already!

 

Sunset at Lake Texoma

Sunset at Lake Texoma for the labor day weekend was around 7: 35 pm. 

On Sunday we went to the kayak launch spot near our camping site by a boat ramp around 6 pm. While waiting for the sunset, we explored every cove east to our launching spot, along the orange route in the following map.

Routes for the Sunset kayak: orange - out, yellow - back 

It took us about 15 minutes to unload and assemble our inflatable kayak Emma. The sun was still high in the sky, we paddled into the first cove.

There were a couple of big turkey vultures on the west bank, and a few ducks. We paddled slowly to enjoy the calm water, cool breeze in the shade of the small hill on the west bank. As we got closer to them, the ducks flew away, the vultures jumped a few yards away from us but stayed on the shore.  

We talked to our friends on the shore and they took pictures of us.  We then turned around and paddled toward the open water to get to the next cove.

First kayaking photo of us in the water  by a friend on shore

At the mouth of the cove, two egrets stood on posts lazily and a few on the rocky shore nearby. They flew away as we got closer to them, and landed 20 yards south from where they were, joined a group of ducks. After a minute or two, the ducks, for no apparent reasons to me, flew away together, the egrets stayed where they were. 

egrets on concrete posts by Lake Texoma

Egrets and Ducks

 Two big house stand prominently at the 3rd cove, one is a ranch house, with huge flush green yard, the other is at the tip of the cove facing the lake,  a mansion. They dwarf the surrounding homes. Both houses have large boat houses at the bank. As we paddled in and out each cove along the route, we saw big fishes jumping out of water, and large school of small fishes make a splash on the water.

a large ranch on the shore - near the mouth of a cove

A mansion at the end of a cove

It passed 7 pm already, the Sun was till about 30 degree above the horizon when we started our return trip, yellow route in the map. We were paddling into the splendid blinding sunshine. We paddled slightly into the shade in each cove we passed and waited for the Sun to set.

Then I noticed that the surroundings were becoming golden, and the water around us glittering golden shine, and snowy egrets flew in the golden sky.

We quickly paddled out of  a shaded in a cove and into the open water.  The sun was about to set.

Fishermen stood in their motor boats, which were close and perpendicular to the shore, throwing fishing lines into the water. We had to get around of them.

In a matter of a minute, Sun set, golden shine diminished, and it got dark really fast. We paddled in unison in great force, and got back to the launching spot, before it was totally dark.

glittering Lake Texoma

flock of birds in the golden sky

Setting Sun

Fishing Boat 

Sunset