Great day for kayaking!

Another hot sunny day, and another great kayaking outing! Today, we drove up to Caesar Creek State Park. The Caesar Creek valley was impounded in 1978 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assist with flood control in the Little Miami River watershed. We have hiked up there a number of times, visited the Pioneer village, and sailed there a few times with Roger’s friend Phil, but this was our first time kayaking there. We did try it one weekend, but there were too many fast boats around, so we went somewhere else. The other consideration, beside the horsepower allowed, is that being a larger lake, wind can be a factor. Yesterday, however, I had read a recommendation on a paddling Facebook page, to put in at the northern tip of the lake, and to paddle up the inlet creek - the water is calm, there’s no current, and it’s very quiet with quite a lot of bird life, as you can see in my collage. We continued up for about a mile or so, and then the channel splits, so we tried one and then the other. We could have continued further upstream, but we decided to head back and try going the other way for a bit - you still aren’t in the main part of the lake, but an inlet, and it was in this area we came across the American wisteria. By this time the wind was picking up a bit, and I was feeling I’d been out in the sun long enough, so we headed back to the boat dock. We had only done about 4 1/2 miles, but we were out for about 2 1/2 hours, spending quite a bit of time just drifting and watching and trying to photograph birds - not easy in a moving kayak, with the wind always trying to push you round!
The park also offers camping and covered picnic pavilions, and some fossil beds that you can explore, so there’s plenty to do there!