Blame it on the eagles

It was an eagle that initially inspired me to buy a canoe. I was standing on the shore of the Ohio River trying to watch a pair of eagles nesting way out on an island, but the birds looked mostly like tiny dark blurs. I suddenly realized that the only way I'd get a better look at those birds was with a canoe.

Today our canoe took us where eagles nest, but not on the Ohio River. Our paddling skills aren't quite up to the demands of that busy commercial waterway, so we've confined ourselves to small, secluded fishing lakes where speedboats aren't allowed. Today, though, Seneca Lake tested us with wind, waves, wakes, and waterskiers--and we passed with flying colors. (Mostly red. A little sunburn.)

Seneca Lake is big and surrounded by campgrounds, cabins, and boat docks, but early in the morning a broad stretch of placid water stretched before us with just a few fishing boats in sight. We ventured toward a distant shore where a long cove stretched into state park land, ducking our heads to get the  canoe under the bridge at the head of the cove.  

There's no chance anything taller than a canoe coming into Cadillac Cove, so we spent the morning exploring clear to the end, where a stand of water lilies nodded in the breeze at the head of a creek that twisted far back into woods so quiet and dense we felt like intrepid explorers opening virgin land.

Fish leaped and slapped the surface of the lake while dragonflies and electric-blue darning needles danced among the water lilies, sometimes connecting up and copulating in midair. And eagles circled, two of them, luring us from one side of the cove to the other and back again. 

When we finally ducked under the bridge again and re-entered the main lake, we faced a challenge: paddling into a sudden strong wind while staying out of the way of waverunners and negotiating wakes. And then we could not at first find the boat launch, so by the time we pulled in, we were simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated. We did it! And if we did it once, we can do it again!

The eagles are calling. How soon until I can go see them again?