The Autumnal Feast

The spawn is over and winter is coming to the Kootenays, BC. I'm already missing the mornings, I'd get up early and leave a note on the coffee maker for my love (gone paddling), load up my kayak with my camera, a snack, a thermos of tea, and push off onto a glassy lake. Nothing but the calls of loons echoing in the morning air, steam rising from the water's surface in the changing early autumn air. The sun creeps up over the mountains, and I get inwardly excited as I glide closer and closer to where I can count on the presence of majestic eagles fishing the creek mouth for spawning kokanee in the first rays of golden light. There's nothing more wonderful than the grandness and silence of the wilderness all to yourself while the world still sleeps.