Jones Creek

I used to wait until the weekend to work on my videos but then it dawned on me: I'm no longer working so I can make them any time I want to.

And yesterday was the day to do it.

Last Saturday was a blistering-hot day. I started it by heading outside to mow the lawn and when I was done, I was soaked in sweat. I hate cutting the grass on days like that, especially in our backyard, where the heat seems to get trapped because of our fence.

But as soon as I was done, I headed for a shower to cool off and decided that we couldn't stay in the city. So DW and I chose to head to the St. Lawrence Seaway, and we invited our Paddlefolk to join us.

Last month, DW and I drove to the Thousand Islands Parkway, left our SUV in Butternut Bay, and cycled from a free parking lot to Rockport, and back. As we cycled along a dedicated path, we passed over a bridge that spanned a waterway that looked suitable for kayaks, so we vowed that we'd check it out, someday.

That someday was last Saturday.

We parked at Brown's Bay, where there's a nice beach. We stopped there on our way back from our bike ride, last month, and had to pay five bucks—for the both of us—to have access to the facilities. It was worth it, because they had a change room, showers, and toilets, as well as a canteen (though, we didn't buy anything there).

For a car, it costs $21 for day-use. I saw that they had a senior's rate of $11 so I asked if 60 was the magic year (I turned that age in March). The guy at the gate said the senior's rate applied to people 65 or older, but said he'd give me the rate anyway.

Nice.

The wind was fierce, threatening to blow my hat off as we carried our kayaks from the parking lot to a spot just west of the marked swim area. There are stone steps that lead down to soft sand.

Once in the water, I found it so windy and choppy that I deployed the rudder on my kayak. We decided to stay fairly close to shore, paddling around the designated swimming area and those swimmers who went beyond the zone. Even so, waves from passing boats, in addition to the wind, gave us a bit of a workout.

Our new kayaks handled it easily.

We paddled downstream, eastward, passing lots of lovely and very expensive homes until we entered a bay that led to Jones Creek. In this sheltered area, the wind relaxed and the waters calmed, and I pulled my rudder back out of the water.

But why am I telling you about our adventure when you can see it for yourself? After all, I'm retired and had the time to put a video together yesterday. Have a watch:

What I recorded but decided to not include in the video was when we reached the beach and jumped into the cool water. I also left off that the showers and toilets were closed off because they became backed up by the time we returned to Brown's Beach.

I hope they were able to fix that problem quickly. During this heatwave, folks are going to want to visit Brown's Bay but it won't be fun without proper facilities.

Thanks for watching. If you enjoy my kayaking videos, do me a solid and subscribe to my channel. Give the videos a Thumbs Up so the YouTube algorithm will share them with more people.

Happy Tuesday!