I got to scratch my itch a little bit and get on the lake this past week (twice!).

If you lived through this past winter in the midwest, then you know how nice it is to get outside–finally.  It was the coldest and snowiest winter since I’ve been alive–I didn’t do too much research before making that statement.  But, because of the nature of this crappy winter, I was pretty gung-ho about getting outside and put in to Lake Monroe while over 50% of it was still frozen–it was 38 degrees on my first day out– March 6th.

My first two entry points I tried were little inlets I was familiar with, however both were totally frozen over.  The third I found only because this DNR guy starting tailing me.  I pulled off on the side of the road and he pulled up beside me.

“You sure you want to go in today?” he asked.

Yes sir.

“Alright, well I know where you can get in.  Just don’t do anything stupid that I’ll have to come out and save your ass.  This ice will break apart soon and I don’t want you to get caught out there.”

He drove me to this northern shore beach called Paynetown–which is usually one of the most populated areas at Lake Monroe, but not a soul was out there that day.  I asked him about not having a 2014 DNR permit on my boat and he said not to worry about it this time.  I wish I’d had a beer to give him.

I walked in my kayak on a sand beach and aimed straight for some birds that were congregated on the ice in the middle of the lake.  They flew off when I got within 200 yards, but I ended up continuing to the edge of the ice, near their spot.  It was so completely quiet out there except for the coolest sound.  Since the ice was pretty much only on top of the water now, you could hear it flexing for thousands of yards across the lake.  I thought of it as if the ice was crying because it knew it was dying with the warm weather–c’est la vie, ice.

I ended up paddling a bit more to a shoreline, then pointed my boat at John Mellencamp’s house and paddled towards that for a while.  I was just trying to see what it was like–imagine running for the first time.  I was trying to sprint in the kayak for as long as I could and as fast as I could.  I tried it into the wind, wind at my side, skeg up, skeg down.  I was just experimenting with her and seeing what she felt like.

Anyway, the first day out ended up being a great day.  I paddled about 2.5 miles (I use mapmyrun.com to calculate, just uncheck the “auto follow roads”).

The second day (March 11th) I went out on the lake it was much warmer–probably high 50’s/low 60’s when I got on.  The sun was bright and there were only a few cirrus clouds that would keep me in the shade–so I took my shirt off knowing that I was going to get a nice sunburn! (it was a very long winter).

As far as remaining ice, I only saw it in the inlets/bays around the lake–nothing in the middle.  There were however, feathers everywhere in the water from the birds that were chilling on the ice.  And there were still a ton of birds out.  I cawed at gulls a few times as they flew over me and they usually circled around me for a while longer than normal–interested in what language I may be speaking I guess.

After docking at this little boat station and looking around at sailboats for a few and drinking some water, I decided that I needed to get serious every time I get on the water and try to push myself for the physicality of what I’m going to attempt.  I hopped back in the kayak and ended up putting in 5 miles before having to leave to meet a new resource for my trip.