Visitors may use canoes or kayaks on any lake where boats are allowed, but quotas on the number of boats per lake are enforced and paddlers will be competing with anglers for a slot.
On this day, I was the only paddler...and eventually, the only human on the lake. A beautiful day, my journey offered a variety of discoveries, not the least of which were the remnants of a phosphate mine and a huge 'gator that popped up just inches from my yak (I had followed it into one of the alcoves, and because of the clay silt clouding the water, it couldn't see me while it was submerged). Soon as it saw me, it dramatically splashed and submerged again. Had I not been tracking its air bubbles, the rapid sequence of events would have scared the bejabbers out of me!
© April L. Gustetter