Time Goes By From Devil’s to Martin’s

Thursday July20-Monday July 24, 2023                    Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground                                                Devil’s Hill Trail
St Johnsbury Vermont                           Planning Around the Rain in Vermont

It’s been 5 days since I hiked Devil’s Hill.  Time just went by somehow.

Thursday, the day after the hike,  it rained off and on so who knew what you could do.  I did go to Estella’s in Lyndonville for dinner with a group from the campground.  Forgot pictures.

Friday I had to pack Winnona up and take her to the other side of St Johnsbury to Lydon Truck Center at the recommendation of Gary the owner of Moose River.  He backed her into my site for me and said he heard something in the steering.  I hadn’t heard it and I checked the steering fluid which was fine.  So I thought he was hearing things.  Still, steering is not something you want to mess with so I made an appointment to have it looked at.  No pictures as I forgot while I was chatting with Dennis the delightful owner and his men were checking Winnona and found nothing amiss.  WHEW.   He said it only took them 30 minutes or less and DIDN’T CHARGE ME ANYTHING!  Are you kidding?   What a great guy.    Back I went to the site to set everything up again.   By that time the day was half over so I puttered around.

I skip hiking and kayaking on the week end to let the week end warriors have it all. 

On Saturday  I do my routine - the farmer’s market, walk the town streets by the lovely houses and walk the labyrinth.

Sunday was a day for reading and too much snacking.  Dinner was a smoked brisket that Mary and Gary did for the “seasonals” (5 month stays) and they include me as I’m here for the ‘second’ longest time at 3 months.  Didn’t bring a camera there either.  I’m getting pretty slack.

Monday I was out early to visit Martin’s Pond.  I took this picture of how I get the kayak off the car with the Hullivator hydraulic lift.  It’s a great kayak rack but really made for SUVs or taller cars.  I do have to lift its 45 pounds up and and then down off of the racks, I cannot slide it as that would affect the racks.  Getting it down is not so hard but lifting it back up on has given me bruises on my forearms if I don’t have someone to help.  Small price to pay for the pleasure of kayaking.

The pond looked as smooth as glass.

The pictures of these tiny dragon or damsel flies (I assume) didn’t turn out as well as I hoped but they were everywhere all over these stems and the same color blue as my kayak.   This picture is one dragonfly and its reflection in the water.

This picture is actually two on one stem.  You can see where the water line is.  The reflection of the stem is darker.

Maybe the same guy but bigger.  My kayak is a great camouflage.

In the distance, I saw what I thought was a duck but when I zoomed in, it was a baby loon and it appeared to be all alone.

As I paddled along the shore a group of ducks was jockeying for place on this log.

Not sure who they were.  The only previous ducks I’ve seen in ponds were Mallards but they have orange feet and these guys appear to have black feet.  Anybody know who they are?

I watched their antics for a while. 

This one was protecting his spot and keeping another duck from climbing up on the log.   Over and over he squawked.    So funny!

Completely different dragonfly.  They seem to like my blue boat.

Eventually I saw what I assume are the loon parents.

Despite the Grandfather from Devil’s Hill’s description that Martin’s Pond had “a few Houses”, it seemed like more than “a few” to me.  This one was one of my favorites as it was tall and really skinny.  It reminded me of the houses in children’s books.  I had a difficult time getting a good picture of it due to the trees.

You have to look carefully to see how tall and skinny it is.

This isn’t a great picture but it’s the only one I have of the entire family.

Does this make you laugh like it did me?   His house in the woods with a water view.  I wouldn’t want to have to mow that strip.

It was a lovely day for kayaking.  Sometimes the water was ruffled by the wind.

Other times I felt like I might be paddling on the clouds.

This photo is of the Loon I heard calling.  I don’t hear them often but the chance to is a big motivator for the kayaking I do in Vermont.  There is nothing else like their calls.   I was able to get this video of two different calls.  It’s a bit shaky in the beginning as I was so zoomed in but it gets better shortly.  Have a listen here.

I’ll close with this photo of the little guy.  To big to ride on mom’s back but still in his baby colors.