This will be a bit of a prelude to our outing on March 11, 2006 Saturday. While at work on Wednesday one of my co-workers, Walter Cochran, pointed out this moth in our driveway out back. 

Pretty cool, huh?

I am hoping that one of my email recipients can tell me what kind of moth it is. My friend Pete managed to get it onto a leaf and we took it out back into the small woods off of the concrete driveway where it might have gotten run over.  This is a Leopard Moth as I have learned.

You must admit, it is VERY unique. None of us had ever seen anything like it.

Next up, our weekend outing on the St. Mary's River.

Hey Again!

Here are the photos from our outing on Saturday, March 11 on the St. Mary's River. We (Dot and I in the tandem kayak) put-in at the Steel Bridge Road boat ramp and paddled upstream for about 3/4 of a mile. The water looked like this when we first started out.

And then a high-speed ski boat passed us. I cannot express in polite terms my feelings about speed boats and jet ski's. After his passing the water looked like this.

Since I knew the river was going to be as wide as this was and more prone to us coming across more speedboats, I recommended that we turn around and head downstream. I knew that down past the Steel Bridge boat ramp, the river narrowed down considerably and we were must less likely to come across powerboats.

It was a good plan with one major drawback. On the way 'home' we would have to paddle upstream into the current. Getting off subject I took this at our snack break.

Here was how the current looked at our snack break. We knew we were going to have a heck of a paddle going back to the ramp but the scenery got so much better after getting past the scattered houses and scattered fisherman in their jon-boats, we just didn't want to turn around.

Notice the tree leaning at a 45 degree left angle and the branches shooting straight up. Each branch looks like a tree in itself. 

When we stopped for our lunch break we came across these sand patterns. These were left high and dry after the water receded from a higher level. And you know me, I just can't resist sand patterns.

We also saw a bunch of deer tracks. Here are some baby deer tracks.

And some daddy or mommy deer tracks. This was on the same bank where we saw the big buck coming out of the water on one of our trips to this area.

On one end of the bank looking across the river.

We saw quite a few of these 'tracks' but have no idea what makes them. 

I thought the two pines together made an interesting picture. The one on the left is very straight while the one next to it on the right is pretty crooked.

Looking upriver on the way back to the boat ramp.

Needles to say, we had a good day on the water. We paddled about 7 1/4 miles. And going upstream was a real chore. We had to keep stopping to catch our breath. But it was worth the hard exercise. Next weekend we are planning on taking Dots' grandkids down to Anastasia, Salt Run, for their first kayak rides. Should be interesting. So until then, Ciao!

Email to Jack Woodward      mailto:  jackwoodward66@hotmail.com

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