Jerry and Fred Kayaking at Tolmie State Park

Fred and I went kayaking from the beach at Tolmie State Park today.  The weather was awesome.  We didn't see hardly any wildlife, but there were some nice views of the mountains from the Sound, a shipwreck, and an old abandoned pier.

Getting ready to kayak.

The water was very smooth today.

Some nice views of Mt Rainier today.

This is the shipwreck.  I don't know its story, but it's obviously been here for a little while.

I couldn't figure out which of these three pictures of the shipwreck with Mt Rainier in the background I liked the most, so I posted all three.

And the old shipwreck.

It was kind of neat paddling around the pier.

Some more nice views of Mt Rainier with the pier in the foreground.

Heading back.

A nice view of the Olympic Mountains on the way back.

Scott and Corey's First Kayaking Adventure

What a beautiful day today!  It was probably 68° on the Nisqually River.  That's where we started.  We paddled down the river into the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge and then over to Luhr Beach.  The water was really up in the river (thanks to the record snowfall in the mountains this past winter).  

We put in off of 6^th Ave in Old Nisqually.  We actually put in almost right under this bridge.  I loved the way the light was shining through the mist around the bridge this morning.

Here are Corey, Scott, and me (Jerry) getting ready for our adventure.

Corey, getting used to the kayak and practicing how to paddle.

When we first put into the river, there were two obstacles that we had to get around.

This tree.

And these rocks.

They did great.

Father and daughter paddling away.

Corey the paddlemaster.

She was having a good time, so far…

We passed underneath I-5 to get to the wildlife refuge.  It sure is noisy.

But it soon gets peaceful again.

It wasn’t long before we started seeing eagles.  Scott got right up on this one.

You can see the eagle flying away on the left side of the picture.

And harbor seals.

You get really nice views of the Olympic Mountains from the Sound.

Corey wanted a picture of the seaweed.

We weren't the only ones on the Sound this morning.  I thought this was an awesome picture with the mountains in the background.

It was actually quite a bit of work to paddle the last half-mile or so because the tide was against us.

And we were done!

Here's a map of the wildlife refuge.  It actually shows the entire route that we paddled today.

Corey with Mt Rainier in the background.