A few weeks ago we decided to take our canoe out for its’ first float of the season.  It was also Alden’s first ride in a boat on water, (he has been sitting and playing in our boats in the yard for a while now).  We loaded up two vehicles.  We will have to figure out a better routine, but right now it’s easier to put the boat on the truck and with Alden’s car seat we don’t all quite fit, so we took Lindsay’s car too.

Streeter Pond

We headed to Streeter Pond in Sugar Hill, NH.  The boat launch, maintained by NH Fish and Game, has plenty of parking and easy access down to the water.  There were two other cars there, one for a canoe and one with a trailer for a small boat.  Everyone was fishing, although the guys in the canoe said they didn’t catch anything more than some perch with their worms.  The other boat looked to be more successful, motoring slowly all around the lake with lures.

Let’s go in the boat!

Alden was a bit hesitant to get into the boat, but settled on Lindsay’s lap while Andrew paddled us along the shoreline.  We pointed out the flora and fauna to Alden to ease him and he seemed to enjoy the ride, although he was not interested in sitting on his own.

Alden is a little unsure about being on the water.

We paddled into a shallow cove where we could see small fish darting back and forth under the boat.  Andrew spotted a painted turtle before it slipped into the water and then noticed a larger brown animal slinking along a log.  We backed into some tall grasses and watched as the mink surfaced from the water and climbed up over the log and disappeared again.

Two painted turtles sunning on a log.

Many birds were singing and dragonflies buzzed by as we paddled a little further around the pond looking for turtles sunning themselves on logs.  The east side of the pond looked to have fewer houses along the edge or at least the houses were not right along the shore which made for nice scenery as we floated.

Andrew guides us on our wildlife viewing canoe ride.

There looked to be an interesting cove at the north end of the pond, but we knew that our canoe trip should be short with a 2 year old, so we turned around and headed back to the boat launch.  Once out of the boat, we got our fishing poles out and cast a few lines while we watched a merganser and two loons.

Lindsay and Alden “help” paddle.

Alden had a fun time and enjoyed his boat ride and fishing trip.  Hopefully next time we can get him to sit on his own so Andrew doesn’t have to do all the paddling.  We will have to be on the look out for a little tiny paddle for Alden so he can help too.

A little fishing when we get back on land.