Petrichor

I want to be able to use this word, petrichor, soon. It means "The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell." We haven't had any significant rain in weeks. My rivers are running low... too low to get out and kayak much, except for the mighty Ohio, and the kayaking season for this year is fast running out.

Besides, I like rain. As much as I like to get outside and run or hike or kayak, there's also something wonderful about being inside with the rain beating down and curling up with a good book.

Rain please. Soon. Now.

World Rivers Day

September 28th marks World Rivers Day, established in 2005 to promote a greater awareness of the role rivers play in our lives. Unfortunately I won't be out on a river tomorrow, since I've already made plans to attend the Ohio Renaissance Festival with friends, but I did paddle the mighty Muskingum River for sixteen miles last weekend with a good friend (pictured). The village of Dresden, Ohio held its first annual Melon Festival last Saturday along with the first annual Paddlefest.

The Muskingum River flows 111 miles through Ohio, joining the Ohio River at Marietta. The river begins at Coshocton, which is where we put in and paddled down to the historic suspension bridge at Dresden. In this section it is a broad, sleepy river, tree-lined and peaceful if one overlooks the power plant at Conesville. Bald eagles are known to nest along the river, though I didn't spot any on this trip, we were lucky enough to watch an osprey dive and catch a fish while we were having dinner later that night at Muddy Misers in Zanesville.

Biking and Kayaking the Little Miami

I managed to work out my bike/kayak personal biathlon on Sunday. I dropped the kayak at a little park (Rahe) near Foster, Ohio, and left it cabled and locked to a tree there. I really just had to hope no one would steal my lunch or my paddle, as there wasn't much I could do to protect them. It turns out Rahe is a good spot to do this though, as the Loveland Canoe/Kayak Livery also uses this park as a put-in point and on the weekends they have one or two people hanging out there to watch their own boats, which tends to discourage thieves. After leaving the kayak, I drove down to Lake Isabella and parked my car, then rode my bike the nine or so miles up the bike trail to where I'd left the kayak. Goodness, there was a lot of traffic in the Loveland area of the bike trail that day! Once I arrived back at Rahe park, I chained my bike and my helmet to a tree, then paddled eight miles back down to Lake Isabella. The bike ride took about an hour and the kayaking bit took about three, given that it was the last day of August and we've had little rain in the last few weeks. There were plenty of very shallow spots and I had to pick my way through a couple of rock gardens, but I only had to get out of my boat once. That was when I took the wrong way around an island and came across a strainer with only a little room to maneuver, so I decided discretion was the better part of valor and portaged around.

I had lunch with the green heron pictured; I was no more than twenty feet from the bird while it fished and I ate cheese and crackers. It's one of the many things I love about kayaking - you can get really close to wildlife at times. I also had an osprey fly right over my head (twice!) with a fish in its talons, a breathtaking sight! Ospreys have this way of holding a fish, once caught, so that the fish's head points in the direction the bird is traveling so as to reduce drag. It's always a treat to see an osprey, especially in Ohio as they aren't all that common here.

Once I got back to Lake Isabella, it was just a matter of loading the kayak onto the car and driving back to pick up my bike. It took a bit of planning but now that I know what I'm doing, I'll surely be doing it again.

Weekend Roundup

After running 5K Saturday morning, I spent the afternoon walking along my little street gathering signatures in order to have the city look into putting speed bumps in to slow down the traffic. Every neighbor I've talked to has a story to tell - everyone who has had to park on the street has had their cars hit and several people have lost pets to speeding cars. Cincinnati received a grant this year to spend on street calming initiatives and hopefully ours will be one of those to benefit.

I went hiking around Caldwell Nature Preserve early Sunday morning and I was the only person on the trails the entire hour. I spent a good fifteen minutes with the trio pictured - the fawns were very curious about me and kept inching closer as I stayed as still as possible and kept snapping photos.

This preserve has scads of pawpaw trees and I spotted lots of unripe fruit in the canopy. I'm planning a return visit once the fruit starts to ripen later in the year.

I also joined up with the Cincy Paddlers group on Sunday for an easy five mile run down the Whitewater River in Indiana. I hadn't been on that river for many years and was pleased to find how clean it was (notwithstanding the case of beer cans I picked up from the banks) compared to how I remembered it. The highlight of the trip for me was spotting a lone osprey hunting along the river. I also picked up a good tip from another new member; the Elkhorn Creek down in Kentucky looks like a lot of fun.

Summer is here....

The Nighthawks, Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds and Chimney Swifts have all arrived on the scene and the seventeen-year cicadas are starting to emerge out on the east side of town, so as far as I'm concerned, summer has officially arrived.

One of the highlights of the long weekend was a fourteen mile kayak trip down the Little Miami. I arrived on the river at eight in the morning, well before the "cabrewers" showed up. There were simply scads of birds about, including Spotted Sandpipers, Cedar Waxwings, Waterthrush and Black Vultures. I floated past a Great Blue Heron rookery, in which I counted twenty nests, though I'm sure there were more that I couldn't see. In fact, I floated past it three times, since I kept paddling back upstream to take in the sight. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but I'm nervous about taking my good camera out on the river, so I had to settle for my cheap, water-resistant digital with a mere 4X zoom. There are some nice photos and descriptions of heron courtship, breeding and nesting behavior at the Great Blue Heron Rookery website.

Mike Fink

I'm not sure how I managed to live in a river city for forty some years without hearing or reading stories about Mike Fink. I knew of the riverboat by that name of course; I've even had a couple of meals there. But I never gave a second thought as to who Mike Fink was until I came across the name in a history of the Alamo yesterday.

Mike Fink was the known as "The Last of the Boatmen", one of those men who made their living navigating the large rivers of the American interior before the days of steam powered paddle-wheelers. He was a semi-legendary figure, born in the late 1700s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to French-Canadian parents. The reason his name appeared in the Alamo history I read was because he was supposed to have crossed paths with Davey Crockett, who described Fink as "half horse and half alligator." All accounts describe his being a keen shot with a rifle, hard-drinking, popular with the ladies and possessing both a quick wit and a bad temper. For further edification, click the link below.

"Mike Fink: the Last of the Boatmen" by Timothy Field (1829)