Our dear girl Skye had been with us for 10 months when we did this trip! Today we had had her for 1.5 years. Can you believe how fast time flies? We can’t! She has gone from a timid, scared of the world pup to an outdoors loving happy girl. She is still timid and shy but is more an dmore confident every day. It’s amazing what some time and patience can accomplish.
We returned to Oyama September 2023 to Uncle D’s cabin on the lake for September long weekend…and what a joy the lake provides. We arrived to sunshine and clear skies on Friday, Saturday mist, Sunday cloud, and Monday scattered sun. It was a mixed bag of weather for sure, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves!
While we went for a paddle 2 days this trip, once on Saturday in the beautiful sun without the dogs. The second paddle we took miss Skye out with us. We attempted to make it through to Streak lake again, unfortunately there’s some new trees down and some beaching happening through the marsh. We probably made it 3/4 of the way through.
This was Skye’s first really long paddle. We were out for about 2.5 hours. We packed our lunches and hit the water around 11am. Mom on the Kayak and me on the paddleboard with little miss Skye. Our aim was to meet our partners at Snake island for lunch…well, that didn’t happen.
Skye was super chill as we paddled over to the marsh, but as we enter the marsh lands she all of a sudden decided to be a butt. Our quiet little pup was now tangling herself around the board as I attempted – key word here is attempted – to butt shuffle across a boulder on the paddleboard. We bottomed out and got our fin stuck. Wrestling leashes, a pup, and trying to shimmy over a boulder on a 10 ft board is so not easy!
But we did get over.
Initially, the marsh was quite high still and easy to get through. Our pilot duck met us just inside the marsh track and lead us through for a while. It was so pretty and peaceful. Even Skye started to settle a bit.
Then the real trouble starts. We are coming up to the last little bit of the marsh and there’s a tree right across the water. Now it doesn’t quite hit the other shore, but its only about 2 feet from the muck. I figured we would try to pass through, we might fit?
Well… we would fit if we didn’t need to float. The water was so shallow that it wasn’t even 2 inches deep. That ended our idea for Snake Island. So we turned around, paddled back to the entrance, and began heading back to the cabin. And little miss? Well, she was still bouncing around the board. I swear, this is when I thought she was going to knock me in!
About half way back across Oyama lake we see a boat and two familiar guys! Well, if we can’t go to Snake Island for lunch, there are other islands in the lake we could visit. So we did!
So we found a place to make camp for an hour and enjoy our lunch. The pups get to explore, and we get to eat! Skye is definitely a woodsy pup. She comes alive in the woods. Like a whole different dog. She was running and jumping and just loving the island life for a while. Don’t we all love that island life? The care free, 5 o’clock somewhere days?
What I did learn this trip? Our little Skye definitely will need a better life vest next year. The one she has is very cost effective vest without all the bells and whistles. Its great for playing on the beach and works in a pinch for paddling, but the limitations are quite a few for what we do. A full review of the vest will follow in our review section.
Its been a while since we posted, and posts will become more steady in the near future.
ASR Adventures 