Friday Paddle.

We stopped at the Subway off of 53 yesterday -- it seems like everybody and his brother is towing a boat to northern Wisconsin this weekend.

Early (enough), we had the small kayaks out on the Red Cedar River, that runs out of Rice Lake. I recall writing posts here previously, about spotting a magnificent bald eagle on the river and the magical spell it held.

Am I getting jaded? Or just more reluctant to share?

Yesterday, I was in the lead -- not that anybody was racing, took a tight corner, and came face to face with a young buck, about 100 - 150 yards downstream -- his antler nubs just poking up an inch, his body frozen about 5 or 10 yards from shore.

I drifted closer, he chose to run for the opposite bank; we were at a spot where the river is only 55 yards wide, approximately, and two or three feet deep with a stony bottom, I later paddle-measured as I passed.

Boy can they leap! I've seen a black bear amble on all fours, myself safely unnoticed on an opposite river bank. And I've come upon deer standing midstream eating the green riverweed before, but they've always gone to the closest cover.

What a mighty creature in the crossing this one was; how big they're built and yet more delicate than a horse...

The bank was rather steep, but he took it no hesitation up to the soyfields that line the river. Magical. Almost made me forget the mighty bald eagle that flew from a log downriver right before I took that turn.