Greenbean Canoe Adventures June 11, 2023
Weather network – June 11 9am – 19` Celsius – 9 km/hr winds, 14 km/hr gusts. UMMM…nope. 😒
Plan A. Meet at the Old Trail boat launch for a little Sunday morning paddle. Well, the Walleye Cup was this weekend, and their launch site was Old Trail. I’ve never seen that parking lot full, let alone every inch of grass along it and down the main road packed trucks and trailers.
Plan B. We drove to Maccagno Point to try our little dip from there. It was not as busy with boats, so we skeptically started our paddle. The skeptically comes from the not-9 km/hr winds…more like 20 km/hr! There were almost whitecaps forming. We paddled along shore for maybe 2 minutes and changed our minds. 🌊
Plan C. Loaded up, we were going to head to Campsite Road where the northwest winds wouldn’t affect the lake shore as much. Then we had a light bulb moment when we saw the little channel that took off from the road and headed to the small bay just east of the LLB Mission. Deep enough to paddle, we set off on some of our uncharted water.
The channel is pretty narrow, but a consistent 16ft (4.88 m) across most of the way. It is bordered by cattails, bulrushes and reed grasses, and makes for a very pretty paddle. What is even more enjoyable, that the wonderful company, is all the birds we are seeing! 😁
Our paddle is very leisurely, as some areas are quite shallow, and we get resistance from the abundance of water plants. On the trip into the bay, we follow some ducks and see lots of Red-Winged Blackbirds.
Once we get into the also shallow bay, we discover our usual “paddle the shoreline” won’t be working out today. The weeds and algae are thick about 50ft (15.24 m)—100ft (30.48 m) out from the taller vegetation, so we paddle just on the outside of the heavy green stuff.
This entire bay, about 70ha, is sheltered from the wind and all you can hear is a variety of birds. We see ducks, grebes, a few pelicans, and blue herons. The sounds of all kinds of birds comes from the surrounding wetland. This area really should be a protected birding area.
Our slow paddle gets us to the long finger that sweeps the north side of the bay area. We pull up on shore where the stinging nettle is a few feet back from the water, and a wonderful strip of “rock picking” heaven is visible. We stretch our legs and hunt for treasures.
The water is clear, so I walk in the water looking at the shiny rocks and Jen walks the dry shoreline for her pocket finds. And they are pocket finds, she makes me laugh standing there with her pant pockets hanging down with the weight of the ones that make it to her office.
After some time passes, snacks have been had and our treasure bags full, we head back to the water inlet to paddle back. Unlike the paddle in, there are not just a few Red-Winged Blackbirds, but lots of them! Both the male and the less flashy female, are quite alarmed about our presence. They do not land and quickly fly away, as per usual, they perch on the tall cattails and sing away at us. We sit still, and somewhat quiet, while I take some pictures.
As we keep paddling, the female is obviously very perturbed and does some swooping tactics while going back and forth across the channel. It sits still for a little photo shoot, while giving us an evil eye. The fear of being pecked at soon makes us continue to move down the water.
The sounds of thunder start to rumble, getting more frequent and louder as we near the end of the water. We just make it to shore and start to load up Marvin, when the rain starts.
We had a very picturesque, quiet and memorable paddle today. If the air had not been as smoky, pictures of the Lac La Biche Mission from this area, would have been pretty cool.
The takeaways:
- Just because your plan doesn’t work out, plans of opportunity are often the most fun.
- If you have rubber boots to wear when walking in shallow water for a long period of time, wear them! Hives on your feet is not fun. (Ok, I now realize that it is not hives, but swimmers itch…and it does itch!) 😬
- Pick some cattails if you can. Did you know they are edible? Now I need to go back.
- The green flower spikes can be cooked and eaten like corn on the cob.
- The tender, white inner part of shoots/plants is edible raw. You grip the plant and pull up firmly to dislodge it. “The tall blade-like leaves are attached along the stem of the plant. Peel the outer leaves away until all that remains is the white central core. The outer leaves may be covered in muck and slime, but the core is clean. Eaten raw, it’s crisp and refreshing, though the taste will vary with the soil and water conditions. Six to eight large plants will provide enough stalks for a meal. I favour dipping them in ranch dressing.” from northernbushcraft.com.
#greenbeanadventures #marvin #sillysisters #llbmission #canoe #outdoors #cattails #redwingedblackbirds #ittchyhives
