Naturist and Naturalist

Saturday dawned to brilliant clear blue skies in northeastern Pennsylvania and a forecast for temps in the mid 80’s. My wife and I immediately decided it would be a great day to spend  on our favorite lake which happens to be a mere 15 minute drive from our house. Canoes loaded on the Subaru and everything packed for a day out including our yet to be tried Bending Branch kayak style paddles which are designed for canoe paddling.  We are proficient with ‘J stroke’ but it is tiresome in a headwind to say the least. But these new paddles made paddling a canoe in the wind a snap. We unloaded the boats and gear and launched on a beautiful calm (for now) lake. 50 feet from the put in we 5 minutes up the lake on our way to our secret skinny dipping hole we spot one of the resident Blue Herons snatch up a fish and gulp it down. We were close enough (maybe 20 feet away and that’s the silent beauty of a canoe) that I was able to see the fish’s outline going down the heron’s throat. What a pleasure to witness nature in the wild. Hugging the shoreline skimming along a bit farther up the lake we happen upon a juvenile Cormorant (a shout out thanks to DrewCt for setting me straight on the identification of this waterfowl). I try to get closer but it flies 50 feet or so up the shoreline and I try again to get closer. I quietly try to sneak closer but it has no intentions of being chummy with me and he lights off over my shoulder toward Barb. She gets a good look and then he is off to less human intruded parts of the lake. A bit more paddling and we are at the mouth of the stream that is the main source of replenishing water for the lake and we spot the mate of the aforementioned heron and a white swan about 100 yards off to our port side. We see them in this prime feeding spot almost every outing. By now the sun has been blazing on our clothed bodies for a half hour and the thought of that swimming hole is getting unbearable. We continue our paddle with the water going from pea soup green (this lake is notorious for ‘working’ during late summer and perhaps a biologist out there can explain to me why) to the crystal clear cold water of the inlet stream. Upstream we see a multitude of perch, bluegills and bass beneath us thanks to the advantage of polarized sunglasses. We pass and say hello to a couple in separate kayaks fishing and think to ourselves that our skinny dipping may be compromised this afternoon. We continue on and keep an eye over our shoulder and they seem content to stick to the mouth area of the stream. The water levels are high for this time of year due to the wet summer and when we reach our spot we discover that the water level affords us the opportunity to paddle upstream farther than any point we were able to in the past. Barb excitedly paddles around me and heads up stream until she hit some fast water that makes it difficult to continue.  I catch up and undeterred, say to her that why don’t we portage this riff and keep going.  She had no problem with that as long as I drug the canoes upstream lol.  A short portage later I had both boats past the fast water and on our way again. Unfortunately a short 100 yards or so we ran into shallow water. But it was a great new place to skinny dip! Or so we thought. We stripped and were exploring the creek and I was taking a few pics of Barb in the nude when she all of a sudden said ‘ there’s a hiker over there!’ OOPS. On our foray up the stream this far I didn’t realize that the hiking trail around this lake brought it so close to the stream. The boats and our clothes were 50 yards downstream so there we were in our glory lol. I didn’t see him but Barb did and she said he definitely saw us but he just kept on his way with no bother. That was a first for us being ‘caught’ and we will be more careful in the future. So we got back to our boats and headed back downstream where we knew it was safe from intruding eyes. We beached the canoes on a convenient sandbar and dove into the cool clear water unencumbered by clothes for the next hour or so and relished the freedom of skinny dipping. Then reluctantly, put on minimal clothing for the paddle back to the launch area and home to a very nice dinner and bottle (or was it two?) of wine. The signs of summer ending are fast approaching  (robins flocking, hummingbirds tanking up and the damn leaves are falling already… what is up with that?) so we will take advantage of every nice day and enjoy nature and naturism at every opportunity.