KAYAKING HOLTER LAKE

Connie and I headed up to the Helena area to do some kayaking at Holter and Hauser Lakes.  Trying to get some more kayaking in before winter hits.  It was a bit cool when we first got there with snow on the peaks the first couple of days.  And the wind blew pretty hard in the afternoons so our kayaking was limited to mornings for awhile.  We spent 4 days at Holter and 4 days at Hauser then had to get back to the Bitterroot.  That will be our last camping/kayaking for the year.  We also stopped and visited our nephew and niece Carl and Debra and their two kids.  They are in the process of moving to Helena from the Seattle area.  Carl got a new position with Boeing at the plant in Helena and they are pretty excited. 

If you look close you can see the snow on the mountains.

View from our campsite.  Since it was pretty cool, not very many people around.

Connie on her smart phone and Zeph keeping the deer away from the camp.  And there were a lot of deer in this area.

A common site - mule deer moving away.

Did a couple of nice hikes behind the camp.  This area was burned a few years ago.

A view of the lake.

If there is a boat dock, there is Connie throwing sticks in for her "dock dog".

Thought these roots were pretty interesting where the water has exposed them.

An immature bald eagle watching us paddle by.

Common Mergansers.

And Jonathan seagull posing for a picture.

We went to "Gates of the Mountains" area and there was this statue.  Zeph went nuts barking at this dog made out of metal.  It took awhile for Connie to convince him it was not real.

A big guy all made out of metal.

Nice flat water to kayak on.

And we really enjoyed all the loons on the lakes.  Love listening to them do their calls early in the mornings.  Pretty sure this bunch is a mother with three babies.

And this guy was watching over the houses in what they call the horseshoe.