To the North

It is a beautiful June day with temps in the 70's and a nice breeze. I head to the north end of the big lake. There are four bald eagles circling and fishing not far from shore along with two gulls that are doing some fancy diving after fish. I have apparently had some effect on the amount of plastic debris in Union Bay as it is getting difficult for me to collect enough junk for my sculpture project. The north end of the lake collects debris, in fact it should collect everything that hasn't gotten caught up in the miles of shoreline to the south (winds tend to be out of the south). I set out from a park and scoot along the shore. Most of the park's shoreline is overgrown. I dunno, maybe this is to discourage swimming here as there is a lot of debris on the shore. The lake here has a firm sandy bottom, so I can wade and collect junk when I need to. Unlike the marsh, where most stuff is floating, a great amount of the sandy berm forming the shore is comprised of plastic. I find lots of tennis balls, many more beach toys than usual, some picnic ware, and I get my first tennis racket. I cherry pick the trash, collecting the best sculptural materials - I'll be back to pick more later. Loaded up, I paddle a mile out to a distant point and back, just for exercise.