Montlake
I've spent way more time with flickr than with blogger lately.
i just now realized that i haven't even posted about my Montlake experience yet.
we got in near that southern offramp on that nearly-barren penninsula and swam north to the 520 bridge on the west side of that small island.
that small pedestrian bridge to the north was where we hung out for a while.
the lily pad forest that i took the majority of the lily pad pictures in was on the east side of that western island, south of the pedestrian bridge.
i went with calen about a week ago. the water was about 72 degrees.
not bad at all.
we tried to find the least murky place to enter, but we really couldn't find anywhere that was semi-clean, so we just plowed in.
damn that water was gross, and there was a bunch of these slime clouds that you'd have to weave in and out of.
at one point i was completely surrounded by 270 degrees of slime, so i had to just swim right through.
there was a small island there which housed some duck, turtles, and had a beaver home. all around the area, was pretty shallow. i only recorded a depth of 10 feet in a few places. it was dark and murky, and the bottom was some thick sludge, i think you can see it in a picture.
later when i was taking pictures of the ducks and turtles, i'd stand up on my fins, stirring up the bottom sediments. large amounts of bubbles would come tickling up my leg. but once they hit the surface, they literally smelled like ass.
decomposing matter, methane escaping. marsh-like environments.
we got to the 520 bridge and swam under. it's amazing how much colder the water can be with some permanent shade over it.
we made it to the floating pedestrian bridge, where calen took a few pictures.
then i hinted at wanting to go into the lily pad forest, so he graciously gave back the camera.
sorry bout hogging that shit, calen.
but man, that had to have been the coolest shit i've done in a while.
i don't think i've had that thrill since we were climbing around in the ape caves.
ok. i take that back. mountain climbing in alaska and almost dying did that too, but that was kind of a different feeling. fear of death. the other feeling was just something that not a lot of people do and takes some physical exertion.
so i was weaving through the lilies, the 7 foot long stalks are amazing. for the most part, the labyrinth of stems was easily navigable, but toward the end there, it got a bit denser.
but that's where the cool pictures were from.
at one point i took an exceedingly long amount of time to get the shots that i wanted and didn't have time to plan my ascent.
while on the way up, my left fin got caught on some stems.
it was a bit unnerving, but after a few seconds, i realized i could just tear through them.
although that's the time i came up with the dead, brown leaf on my head.
but, air is air. it's the same lifegiving gas if there's shit on your head or not.
so i decided after that incident to be done with the lily pads, which meant i had to go through a bunch of slime rather than go back the way i came.
so i grinned and beared it. it wasn't too bad.
i went to the floating bridge where calen was chilling, and we hung out for a bit.
a duck came to visit, which signaled our time to leave and chase it.
i got a few pictures of it.
back at the island is where i got my best wildlife shots.
i had to plow through more sludge and slime and general muck that was about a foot deep at least. all this was on my stomach. i felt like i needed khaki shorts and a shirt.
so i got some pictures and made my way back through the sludge.
once again i was less cautious going out as i was heading in.
this time the slime totally covered my mask so i couldn't see anything but green at all.
calen must have heard the snorkel-muffled screams as i was thrashing about in the lake doing flips in the water to get it off of my lips and face. i was tightly gripping the snorkel to not let it into my mouth at all.
that was about it. no real good finds other than plant and animal life.
we did find that snail or crab shell, which is the coolest calcium-formed thing i've found since the sand dollar that's chilling in with akbar.
manuel and i are going again tomorrow in kirkland.
be on the lookout for more pictures!
i just now realized that i haven't even posted about my Montlake experience yet.
we got in near that southern offramp on that nearly-barren penninsula and swam north to the 520 bridge on the west side of that small island.
that small pedestrian bridge to the north was where we hung out for a while.
the lily pad forest that i took the majority of the lily pad pictures in was on the east side of that western island, south of the pedestrian bridge.
i went with calen about a week ago. the water was about 72 degrees.
not bad at all.
we tried to find the least murky place to enter, but we really couldn't find anywhere that was semi-clean, so we just plowed in.
damn that water was gross, and there was a bunch of these slime clouds that you'd have to weave in and out of.
at one point i was completely surrounded by 270 degrees of slime, so i had to just swim right through.
there was a small island there which housed some duck, turtles, and had a beaver home. all around the area, was pretty shallow. i only recorded a depth of 10 feet in a few places. it was dark and murky, and the bottom was some thick sludge, i think you can see it in a picture.
later when i was taking pictures of the ducks and turtles, i'd stand up on my fins, stirring up the bottom sediments. large amounts of bubbles would come tickling up my leg. but once they hit the surface, they literally smelled like ass.
decomposing matter, methane escaping. marsh-like environments.
we got to the 520 bridge and swam under. it's amazing how much colder the water can be with some permanent shade over it.
we made it to the floating pedestrian bridge, where calen took a few pictures.
then i hinted at wanting to go into the lily pad forest, so he graciously gave back the camera.
sorry bout hogging that shit, calen.
but man, that had to have been the coolest shit i've done in a while.
i don't think i've had that thrill since we were climbing around in the ape caves.
ok. i take that back. mountain climbing in alaska and almost dying did that too, but that was kind of a different feeling. fear of death. the other feeling was just something that not a lot of people do and takes some physical exertion.
so i was weaving through the lilies, the 7 foot long stalks are amazing. for the most part, the labyrinth of stems was easily navigable, but toward the end there, it got a bit denser.
but that's where the cool pictures were from.
at one point i took an exceedingly long amount of time to get the shots that i wanted and didn't have time to plan my ascent.
while on the way up, my left fin got caught on some stems.
it was a bit unnerving, but after a few seconds, i realized i could just tear through them.
although that's the time i came up with the dead, brown leaf on my head.
but, air is air. it's the same lifegiving gas if there's shit on your head or not.
so i decided after that incident to be done with the lily pads, which meant i had to go through a bunch of slime rather than go back the way i came.
so i grinned and beared it. it wasn't too bad.
i went to the floating bridge where calen was chilling, and we hung out for a bit.
a duck came to visit, which signaled our time to leave and chase it.
i got a few pictures of it.
back at the island is where i got my best wildlife shots.
i had to plow through more sludge and slime and general muck that was about a foot deep at least. all this was on my stomach. i felt like i needed khaki shorts and a shirt.
so i got some pictures and made my way back through the sludge.
once again i was less cautious going out as i was heading in.
this time the slime totally covered my mask so i couldn't see anything but green at all.
calen must have heard the snorkel-muffled screams as i was thrashing about in the lake doing flips in the water to get it off of my lips and face. i was tightly gripping the snorkel to not let it into my mouth at all.
that was about it. no real good finds other than plant and animal life.
we did find that snail or crab shell, which is the coolest calcium-formed thing i've found since the sand dollar that's chilling in with akbar.
manuel and i are going again tomorrow in kirkland.
be on the lookout for more pictures!
4 Comments:
Cool pics, some of my favs so thus far. That water though looks just plain gross. I don't know if I would be up for snorkeling through slimeballs....
Travis, I am a paper sculptor who discovered your underwater lily pad photos while doing an image search for reference images. I am using them as background for creating my current work-in-progress, "Koi's World." I mentioned you and your wonderful photos on my own blog, Artdog Observations. You can see it at: http://artdogobservations.blogspot.com/ I have added a link to both your photostream on Flickr and this blog post. Thank you very much for posting your photos!
It's been a while since I've had any sort of activity on my blog. Thanks for linking back! Always glad to help.
Hm. I went back as far as Aug 2010 and couldn't find any references. Is there another link?
I liked the Nov 24, 2010 post, with the grass and flowers jumping out at you.
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