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Pastimes : Canoes, Hiking, the Great Outdoors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: csm who wrote (131)	5/29/1999 7:34:00 PM
From: Crocodile	Respond to of 325

Stuart, I've been busy too... doing a bedroom and bathroom renovation...Ahhh, what fun! Hoping to get out on the river tomorrow though. We're having more super hot, dry weather here. Some of the river levels are getting quite low as a result of the very dry spring. I have heard that a couple of rivers in the Upper Ottawa Valley are so low that some of the campgrounds are practically high and dry as far as swimming and boating is concerned. If I get out tomorrow, I'll post a little trip report... Croc

To: csm who wrote (131)	6/5/1999 7:43:00 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 325

Stuart, Hope the bathroom renovation is going well.... I'm afraid that I've been distracted by a number of outdoor tasks, so my renovation projects are in limbo for the moment. Got away for a little trip on the Tay River near Perth today. It's an occasional paddling spot which I enjoy because the birding is usually quite good. An extension of the Rideau Trail system follows the river out of Perth in the direction of Smith Falls, so you see the occasional hiker along the bank. It is actually an old "canal" so there are great pieces of limestone in some areas of the banks. If you go near those, you will see plenty of evidence of muskrat activity... Lots of freshwater clam shells littering the bottom of the river below the large flat areas of stones where the muskrats like to picnic... (-: Several good bird sightings today... Of the "typical ones" for that river were 3 Great Blue Herons, a Turkey Vulture, a Mallard Duck, and several Kingfishers. There was an Osprey fishing in a section where I've occasionally encountered them. But the best sightings today were a surprisingly unafraid Loon that surfaced about 15 feet from our canoe and then nonchalantly paddled along ahead of us, diving and resurfacing for about a half a mile length of the river. That was great. Then we saw and American Bittern on the riverbank just a few feet away from us. It was in that peculiar "freeze" position that bitterns assume when they think they're in danger... standing still with it's wickedly long, sharp beak pointed up to mimic a dried cattail or bullrush. After it thought it was out of danger, it crept along low to the ground with its neck and beak outstretched. Actually, it was a rather comical performance because it was quite visible to us at all times due to it being completely exposed on an open area of the bank. But its movements were so slow and stealthy that I'm sure it thought it was doing a superb impersonation of The Invisible Bittern... (-: Best plant sightings were some yellow and blue flag growing in the clay between pieces of limestone along the riverbank. Best "other sightings" were some rather large "inukshuk-like" stone arrangements which someone has constructed from the quarried out limestone heaped up on one section of the bank. These have appeared since the last time I was on the Tay in late '98. There already was an old "marker stack" from years ago, but these are new and rather artistic... Regarding water conditions. Water levels are definitely lower than usual. In the shallow, swampy sections, the water had quite a bad odor of decomposing algae and plant materials from last year. I can't say I can remember the river being like that before. I noticed the same thing on another creek a week ago. I may do some checking around with other paddlers to see if they're noticing the same conditions on other area creeks. There was also quite a lot of floating debris on the water which always ticks me off. This is a moderately travelled waterway so I suppose that I should expect this kind of thing, but I get quite annoyed when the litter seems excessive. When I'm paddling, I usually bring a garbage bag and some gloves with me and try to scoop anything that I see... If I had have done that today, I think my trip would have been about 6 hours instead of 3...Hmmmph!! My favourite "home creek" stays fairly clean , but then I paddle on it once or twice a week in summer and by the end of the summer, there aren't too many pieces of "flotsam" to be found on it... and I like to think that maybe there are at least a couple of other paddlers who hate litter as much as I do...(-: Well, that's the Croc's weekend report...;-}> Croc