May 28th - Paddled a Creek off Cypress Bend

I went by Bickham Dickson the other day and it was so low, it looked like it was just a flooded field. You could see the grass under the water and the channel was pretty narrow. So I decided not to kayak there. But I wanted to do some paddling. Today was about 96 degrees. And since we had a family reunion at Cypress Bend, I decided to bring my kayak along.

After the reunion was over I decided to go to a friend's house on the opposite side of the lake from the State Park. She had mentioned that I could explore the creek that enters into the river around her house. It's a long trek from her house to the launching point so I used the paddlecart to help haul the kayak. I think I finally got the paddlecart to work right. I didn't lose the yak once! (It has fallen off the paddlecart everytime that I had used it before!) I guess I just had to get some practice in.

It was probably the wrong time to be on the lake for wildlife...around 3 PM, but I went anyway. The creek was great to paddle on. Very calm, easy to paddle. There was a pretty stiff headwind. I had to go very slowly because of the submerged trees. There were lots of times that I could feel the submerged tree grazing the bottom of the kayak as I went over it...kinda disconcerting! And several times my paddle hit something that I couldn't see. But I made it ok. I went all the way to the head end of the creek. By then it was just too crowded with trees and stumps coming out of the water, so I turned and went up the other side of the creek.

I saw an egret flying by, but had to dig through the dry bag to find the camera again, so I didn't get a good picture of him.

I saw a Blue Heron land on the dock of one of the houses. He sat there for the longest. I probably got within 20 feet of him before he took off.




I was able to get one good picture of him as he flew away. He sure was big.









I thought I would paddle up to the dam, but when I got out into the main channel, it was so rough that I just couldn't make much headway. So I went across the creek toward the other side of the spit of land that my friend lives on. Someone had built a "seawall" at the outmost point of the land, and as I went by it, the waves were pretty big from the reflections of the waves hitting it. I wasn't sure that I would make it through that without swamping so I turned back up the creek. I got close to my friend's house and her girls called out and told me it was 30 minutes to supper... yeah crawfish! I needed to go make the cocktail sauce anyway, so I went in.

All in all it was a good paddle...about an hour and a half. Got a blister on my thumb. It was rough out in those waves! I am looking forward to going camping next weekend with the kayak. Hopefully I will get some paddling done on the lower end of the Cossatot River as it comes in to Lake Gillham.

Well, that's it for now. Happy paddling!
Cathy