Marshall Lake (Kickarillo-Mischer Preserve)
by Kent Walters

This was a combination of preparation for the Santa Elena Canyon trip and an opportunistic excuse to get on the water.  Seven of us showed up at the appointed time.  We got our boats down to the shore, and I brought all of the stuff for the trip and demonstrated how to get it all into a relatively small boat.  I should have taken a picture of the stuff next to the boat, but there will be other opportunities for that.

The boat got packed, and we got on the water just as a light rain started to fall.  The rain lasted about two minutes.  We paddled and talked, making our way around all of the nooks and crannies of the little lake.  

We saw a flock of cormorants that seemed to have claimed the lake as their own.  A couple of egrets were in different parts of the lake.  Turtle noses were poking out of the water around us, but we didn’t see any out on the shore or on roots.  The sun was not shining, so they probably did not want to go to the effort to climb out of the water for no good reason.  We witnessed a nature moment when one of the cormorants caught a fish.  The whole group of birds got really excited and seemed to be supporting the lucky one, who was having some difficulty getting the fish to move down its gullet.

As far as the trip preparation component of this event, Brent brought his boat completely packed for the trip, and my boat was packed except for a couple of food items that I didn’t want to start decomposing this early.  Everyone else came to observe, try new boats, or just hang out.

A very pleasant, low-key time was had by all.

 

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The author, Kent Walters