Jug Lake
Thursday, February 9, 2006 brint.adams@us.army.mil
Today was the big trip for my mother's birthday celebration. Barb, Ken, Mom and I set out for the same area we took Mom to last year at this time, when we paddle to the Indian Mounds. This year we settled on a paddle from the Rice Creek Landing over to the covered floating platform on Jug Lake, around the back side of Fisher Island.
We travelled up Hwy 225 to Stockton and to Rice Creek, where we found the water level up to a nice full level. At 10:30 AM, the temperature started out at about 50 degrees under clear and sunny skies. My Mom and I paddled our canoe, while Ken was in the Seda and Barb in the Perception. Everyone got used to their boats quickly and we started off down Rice Creek to Briar Lake.
We took the cut-through, against a current, over to Tensaw Lake and turned left downstream, along Larry Island. At the bottom of Larry Island, we cut across the muddy and swifter Tensaw River, to the entrance of Bayou Jessamine. Along the way, we came across Turkey Vultures floating overhead and Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets either walking the shoreline or standing up on high tree branches.
Bayou Jessamine had a slight current coming out from Bottle Creek, but the water was high on the bank and relatively easy to negotiate around the several treefalls across it. We made our way up to Jug Lake and paddled easily around Fisher Island to the platform. We enjoyed lunch there in the sunshine before starting our trip back over the same course. Two Great Egrets led us back up Rice Creek past the magnificent Cypress trees and back to the launch.
One thing we noticed were the red maple trees bursting out with color. I will make sure we schedule a paddle next weekend out in the lower delta and up Red Maple Slough, which should be real showy by then. Our trip ended up covering 7.5 miles, which we did in an easy 3 hours of paddling time.
Today was the big trip for my mother's birthday celebration. Barb, Ken, Mom and I set out for the same area we took Mom to last year at this time, when we paddle to the Indian Mounds. This year we settled on a paddle from the Rice Creek Landing over to the covered floating platform on Jug Lake, around the back side of Fisher Island.
We travelled up Hwy 225 to Stockton and to Rice Creek, where we found the water level up to a nice full level. At 10:30 AM, the temperature started out at about 50 degrees under clear and sunny skies. My Mom and I paddled our canoe, while Ken was in the Seda and Barb in the Perception. Everyone got used to their boats quickly and we started off down Rice Creek to Briar Lake.
We took the cut-through, against a current, over to Tensaw Lake and turned left downstream, along Larry Island. At the bottom of Larry Island, we cut across the muddy and swifter Tensaw River, to the entrance of Bayou Jessamine. Along the way, we came across Turkey Vultures floating overhead and Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets either walking the shoreline or standing up on high tree branches.
Bayou Jessamine had a slight current coming out from Bottle Creek, but the water was high on the bank and relatively easy to negotiate around the several treefalls across it. We made our way up to Jug Lake and paddled easily around Fisher Island to the platform. We enjoyed lunch there in the sunshine before starting our trip back over the same course. Two Great Egrets led us back up Rice Creek past the magnificent Cypress trees and back to the launch.
One thing we noticed were the red maple trees bursting out with color. I will make sure we schedule a paddle next weekend out in the lower delta and up Red Maple Slough, which should be real showy by then. Our trip ended up covering 7.5 miles, which we did in an easy 3 hours of paddling time.
posted by brint @ 6:11 PM
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