Where did I go with my force fins?

[Soakedlontra]

Playing dead in three feet of water at Umbagog Lake New Hampshire

The Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful mosaic of ponds, rivers and lakes that lies between northern New Hampshire and Maine. The best way to visit this waterland is by paddling. Yesterday I did not have a canoe or a kayak available so I ended up snorkeling in the southern shore of Umbagog Lake that's accessible by car. ​

I was expecting good visibility, instead I was rather disappointed to discover that it was only few feet. However, I was amazed to see how the bottom was covered with native fresh water mussels. I have never seen so many. I was looking for spots with native aquatic plants where fish like to hang around. Eventually I swam to an area where the bur-reed was growing. As soon as I crawled there and float like a cork without moving - the water was three feet deep only - I was surrounded by a school of small cute fish that had a black stripe along their bodies. I had a lot of fun playing dead for an hour while those fishes kept swimming by to check me out.​

After snorkeling I make sure that there are not piece of aquatic plants stuck in my gear. The last thing I want to do is to spread some nasty aquatic invasive species from one body of water into another. I rinse it in hot water if a shower is available otherwise I​

hang it and let it dry thoroughly or leave it inside the car. Temperature has been going up to 80° F and the car has been turning into a toasty oven:​

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[Bob Evans]

Betty,,,Bingo 60,001 view's. Wonderful stories. I thank you very much. Bob Evans

 

[Soakedlontra]

Betty,,,Bingo 60,001 view's. Wonderful stories. I thank you very much. Bob Evans

UAHHH! Let's have a toast! Salute!

I have started editing my first Northern Forest Canoe Trail video, it's 8:30 pm and I have just realized that been in the office for 12 hours and no dinner yet!

Tomorrow I need to go diving into the nearby swimming hole of the Mad River to cool my head off.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge and spooky Lake Champlain, Vermont

The scope of my internship with the Northern Forest Canoe Trail is to produce two videos about aquatic invasive species. The first is about teaching paddlers how to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species and the second is about showing the efforts that have been carried out by state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations and individuals in the states and part of Canada where the Northern Forest Canoe Trail is present: New York, Vermont, Québec, New Hampshire and Maine.

Last Wednesday I spent the whole day visiting the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge. After obtaining a permit, I explored a marsh where the invasive plant purple loosestrife was in bloom and native turtles were basking in the sun. I had to wear my Farmer John wetsuit because the marsh was full of hungry green leeches.
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In this kind of environment it wouldn’t have made much sense to try to snorkel so I left my force fins in the trunk of the car and waded through incredibly thick aquatic vegetation hoping to get close to those turtles. Unfortunately Vermont turtles seemed to be warier than the ones that live in Washington. However, there were plenty of relaxed frogs around. Sad to say, the purple loosestrife was one of the predominant plants around me. Its attractive colorful flowers kept the local bees busy, though...no wonder that it was used as a forage plant for bees.
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American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana or Lithobates catesbeianus?)​

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)

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Most of the Missisquoi River Delta is part of the refuge. The river’s murky water flows into the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. After walking along the wooded banks of a couple of creeks under the baking sun, the air filled with annoying mosquitoes and leopard frogs jumping in all directions, I filmed the aquatic invasive frogbit choking native white water lilies. I spotted great blue herons, heard ospreys' calls and suddenly a beaver showed up in the still water. ‘The only animals missing here are alligators’ I thought…

Eventually, I finally found my way to the shore of Lake Champlain late in the afternoon. I had been steaming inside the Farmer John wet suit so I couldn’t wait to cool off in the lake. This time, instead of getting back into my wet Farmer John, I wore my dry shorty because that made it less likely that I would spread an aquatic invasive. Well, it did not occur to me until I stood in the water with my fins on that the Missisquoi River was just around the corner dumping a lot of silt into the lake, consequently, I could hardly make out the forked shape of the fins.

Undeterred, I swam to an area covered with reeds looking for fish. The visibility must have been one foot or less. Underwater the reeds were coated with green algae. To begin with I did not see any fish at all; I kept cruising through the vegetation like an aquatic plant harvester. At some point I noticed a large green tear-shaped blob attached to some plants. It truly took me by surprise. I had seen fresh water sponges and ‘coral’ before, but this ‘thing’ looked different.

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?​

After inspecting the blob (it was firm to the touch and longer than my hand) I began to notice timid small fish in the cloudy water. Then a huge black shadow appeared from deep inside the thicket of the reeds and promptly disappeared out of sight. Wow! That was the largest fresh water fish that I had ever seen! It looked like a gigantic carp. It had distinctive prominent large scales. Then more large fishes began to show up and disappear like ghosts through the reeds. In the distance the plants were so thick that the water turned almost black. A curious bass stood still in front of me until it lost interest and swam away.

The sun was setting and I was getting cold so I swam back to shore. The initial sense of disappointment was replaced with a feeling of awe. You never know what surprises can unfold under your eyes underwater, regardless of the visibility, if you keep an open mind!
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Back to my camp at Yestermorrow Design Build School, I was able to rinse all my gear in hot water after pulling off all the plant fragments that I could see and let it drip on a clothesline. Later, before clouds moved in, I hung them in my office that was still toasty and had a huge fan on and let them dry thoroughly for a couple of days. Unless you want to use a solution with bleach drying is the best method to kill most of the aquatic invasive species.
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[Soakedlontra]

Playing with fish and water lilies at Lake Memphremagog, VT.

Last weekend I took a break from editing and went for a nice swim at lake Carmi and snorkeled for three hours at Lake Memphremagog.

It was a warm day but somehow I felt cold in the water so I wore the top and bottom of my farmer John, and the hood. Another good reason to cover my skin with neoprene was that the Lake Memphremagog is full of small leeches.​

I snorkeled here once before and I did not notice any yellowish blobs attached to aquatic plants like at Lake Champlain. This time they were all over the place.

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I was hoping to interact with large bass but for some reasons they stayed clear from me. However, some little slim fish were totally fascinated by the large lens port of my housing. The funny and frustrating thing was that as soon I moved my hands to try to take a picture they would freak out and swam away so at the end I did not bother to try to look at the camera LCD screen anymore and began to shoot at random in the direction of the fish. 'Eventually, soon or later, I will get a photo with the fish somewhat in focus' I thought. I had plenty of time to hang around !





Then a school of sun perch appeared through the canopy of water lilies and encircled me to check me out. We spent hours looking at each other eyeballs. Its avid curiosity make it one of the friendliest fresh water fish that I have ever encountered so far.

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While I was floating motionless among water lilies I began to hear voices behind my back. A group of kayakers swiftly sneaked up on me to have a good look at what I was doing, I guess. Fortunately, jet skis and motor boats did not venture so close to shore ! ​

playing with white water lilies
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playing with cow water lilies

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After being in the water for three hours my stomach began to growl and I felt incredibly thirsty and a bit tired. I swam back to the boat launch where I had parked the car, let my snorkeling gear to drain and had dinner with a delicious locally baked bread, decent olives, tasty hummus, locally grown organic tomatoes sipping a micro something lemon/ginger sparkling concoction under a welcoming 6pm warm sun.

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Happy safe snorkeling and diving !​

 

[Soakedlontra]

Snorkeling in a river for the first time!

The Mad River on a good day


Mad River patient crayfish



Where is the trout?

When I was kicking upstream and crawled into the current by holding myself onto rocks I felt a bit like a salmon when it swims upstream to its spawning grounds.

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[Soakedlontra]

Playing with scuba bubbles at Lake Willoughby, VT

A couple of weeks ago I took another break from editing. I wanted to snorkel in one of the clearest lakes of Vermont. I did a Google search and a travel forum showed up on the screen with various names of lakes and ponds. After further reading, I decided to try the water of Lake Willoughby, a glacial lake that, according to Wikipedia, is 300 ft. deep and it is considered the deepest lake located within the state boundaries.

Lake Willoughby is a fairly large scenic lake whose southern end is flanked by steep rock cliffs. While I was driving along the curvy and narrow road on the eastern shore of the lake looking for access to the water I noticed a couple of people assembling scuba gear at a pullover. They were the first scuba divers that I encountered since my trip to Upper Saranac Lake, NY.

I decided to stop and park there. The divers were from Québec. They picked that spot because they wanted to do a deep dive. At that pullover the shore drops down almost vertically and it's easy to go really deep quickly. Certainly it was a good place to practice deep diving but its rocky structure was not very suitable for aquatic plants and the wildlife that goes with them. Then a more positive thought crossed my mind:"I bet that this bottom covered with stones, rocks and boulders of all sort of sizes is a crayfish paradise."




The water turned to be one of the clearest that I had swam so far. However it was full of suspended particles so it was not really crystal clear. During my first snorkeling session I decided to follow the divers' bubbles and look for crayfish later. When I am diving I don't scrutinize the bubbles that I or other divers produce; they travel to the surface above my head disappearing from view and that's the end of their story.




This time I was curious to know what is was like to immerse myself into those bubbles. It was pretty amazing. It was like to be inside a hot tub with good visibility. The bubbles had a 'heavier presence' than common standard ones because they looked coated with a thin layer of lead or silver.







When I was through with the scuba bubbles I swam to shore and warmed up on a large flat rock like a marine iguana. Then, I snorkeled in few feet of water scouting the bottom for crayfish. It did not pass much time that they began to appear all over but they were very wary. A soon they sensed something was not quite right, excessive water movement or the approach of a huge shadow, they would retreat in holes and crannies disappearing from view. I had never had such a hard time in photographing these critters. I don't know why but lake WA crayfish seemed a bit friendlier. Lake Willoughby crayfish can truly test the patience of a saint!

After countless tries I finally managed to take some pictures of those fellows. I also did a little experiment. T one point, I was facing one crayfish desperately trying not to scare it off. At the right moment I slowly and gently touched the tip of one of its antennas with one of my fingertips and then wow! It looked like I gave it a high voltage electric shock! It totally freaked out and swam backward as fast as it could to get the hell out of my sight! I concluded that crayfish eyesight must not be very good but those antennas… What sensitive appendages!

Then, unexpectedly, while I was swimming back to my point of entry, I bumped into a large crayfish that behaved differently from all the others. It had a bolder personality. Instead of slowly retreating underneath a rock it kept marching at a steady pace toward me with its claws wide open! The whole scene was rather comical considering that I must have been 1000 times larger than the crustacean. Its bravery really made my day!

 

[Soakedlontra]

My video production internship with Northern Forest Canoe Trail is over. It has been an exciting and intense experience. I got to know the NFCT dedicated staff, interviewed a countless number of interesting people from different walks of life in NY, VT, NH and ME. I have learned about their passion for preventing the spread of against aquatic invasive species. I snorkeled and paddled in a variety of water bodies rich in wildlife that I have never visited before.

Clean Drain Dry for Paddlers is a video that teaches paddlers how to prevent the spread of AIS. Although, it is tailored for those canoe and kayak enthusiasts who are planning to paddle the 740 miles of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, anybody who enjoys doing recreational activities in lakes and rivers can benefit from watching it including scuba divers.

I have heard that some divers have purposefully introduced zebra mussels in certain lakes to improve the clarity of the water. For divers who are not fortunate to live by the ocean and dive most of the time in lakes and rivers this video offers them some food for thought.

Frankly, as a diver I have never thought about the possibility of spreading aquatic invasive species with my scuba gear until I began to work on this video. Now I am more aware of this issue and having experienced the clean drain and dry method myself I can see that it can be challenging at times but if it becomes a habit and is incorporated in your scuba routine like assembling the gear, for instance, it is easy.


Now I am ready to hit the road and drive back to WA. Bon Voyage!
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[Soakedlontra]

My video production internship with Northern Forest Canoe Trail is over. It has been an exciting and intense experience. I got to know the NFCT dedicated staff, interviewed a countless number of interesting people from different walks of life in NY, VT, NH and ME. I have learned about their passion for preventing the spread of against aquatic invasive species. I snorkeled and paddled in a variety of water bodies rich in wildlife that I have never visited before.

Clean Drain Dry for Paddlers is a video that teaches paddlers how to prevent the spread of AIS. Although, it is tailored for those canoe and kayak enthusiasts who are planning to paddle the 740 miles of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, anybody who enjoys doing recreational activities in lakes and rivers can benefit from watching it including scuba divers.

I have heard that some divers have purposefully introduced zebra mussels in certain lakes to improve the clarity of the water. For divers who are not fortunate to live by the ocean and dive most of the time in lakes and rivers this video offers them some food for thought.

Frankly, as a diver I have never thought about the possibility of spreading aquatic invasive species with my scuba gear until I began to work on this video. Now I am more aware of this issue and having experienced the clean drain and dry method myself I can see that it can be challenging at times but if it becomes a habit and is incorporated in your scuba routine like assembling the gear, for instance, it is easy.


Now I am ready to hit the road and drive back to WA. Bon Voyage!
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This is the new link to Clean Drain and Dry for Paddlers:

Clean Drain Dry for Paddlers - YouTube

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---------- Post added November 5th, 2013 at 03:40 PM ----------

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[Soakedlontra]

Snorkeling in the Green River, Kentucky

I ended the video production internship in Vermont at the end of August. On September 2 I began my second cross country road trip. After visiting Niagara Falls and Watkins Glen in New York State, I drove through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the Skyline Drive in Virginia and spent few days in Kentucky at

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I had never heard of Mammoth Cave National Park until I was camping at Watkins Glen State Park and had to figure out where to go next. I opened my road Atlas and noticed that the first and last pages had a list of national parks and Mammoth Cave was one of them. This park protects the longest known cave system in the world (its estimated length is 400 miles) and the attractive Green River Valley. The River Styx Cave was the tour that captivated my imagination the most. Climbing down to the deepest part of the cave was like visiting earth's entrails. It was an unforgettable experience listening in semi-darkness to underground water that was trickling through invisible fissures and cracks on the rock, which would eventually reach the Green River, and gazing at the dantean stillness of two ponds.

Back on the surface I wanted to take advantage of the warm weather and test the Green River's water. As the name suggests, the Green River is really green, mud-light-green. Its look can be a bit off-putting. I picked a spot at the river bank that did not have ferry traffic and had an easy entry. For the first time I was not surrounded by other visitors and I had the place all for myself. While in the moderately flowing water, my mind could not help wondering what kind of creatures may be lurking in that murkiness. A light rain began to fall and I felt like I was immersed in a small tributary of the Amazon River, hopefully without being in the company of piranhas.​

The following day the sun was shining happily and with a sense of trepidation I went back to the same place with my snorkeling gear.
This time I wanted to see what the Green River looked like from underwater.

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Well…not surprisingly the visibility was bad, really bad... actually it was atrocious. In order to see the bottom I nearly had to stick my nose into the river's muddy bed. ​

Somehow I managed to have a foggy glimpse of some small fish that got close to check me out and was able to pick up the empty shell of the largest fresh water mussel that I have ever seen.




"WOW! I cannot believe it! This guy seems to be larger than the world's largest burrowing clam: the geoduck!"


Before leaving Mammoth Cave National Park I hiked to the River Styx and Echo Rivers springs.

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Echo River Spring​

Divers went down that small green hole on the bottom right of the photograph and discovered that there was a passage that connected the Echo River with Mammoth Cave. While I was dipping my feet in the cool water of the spring I marveled at the thought that for millions of years water fell from the sky, dropped down into the underbelly of the earth at sinkholes, traveled underground for miles and sculpted one section of the Mammoth Cave system. However, this time I did not wish to have my scuba gear with me. The thought of squeezing my body through that hole made me feel claustrophobic already. Cave diving is definitively not for everybody.

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