M is for Maze

I rounded up my friend, M, for a second low tide tour in the Wheeler Marsh. M is one of my most frequent canoe partners and she has been away most of the summer.  

We get down to the state ramp for our start.  At low tide there are not a whole lot of choices for start points as most of the rougher put-ins are mud slogs just to reach water.  Mud slogs are especially fun with a canoe on your shoulders. It is a nice sunny day, although the wind has far exceeded the weather prediction.  But, the wind at the river is not as strong as it was at the house.  We will have a headwind on the return, but it will be doable.

We get to the marsh about an hour after low tide. It is clear that today's low tide is not at all as low as it was during yesterdays trip.  In fact, it looks like there is another 8 or 10 inches of water.  The narrow mud flats below most of the cut banks are submerged.  The Least Sandpipers are out in force, but the Yellow Legs are nowhere to be seen.  We head down Nell's Channel and turn into the maze.  Yesterday I coasted in on little more than 6-8 inches of water, until bottoming out.  Today, we passed yesterdays turning back point and made it to the tight turns near the root ball, although we were low enough that I couldn't see the roots from the canoe... I just recognized the series of sharp turns in the channel.  We flushed some Great Egrets, young Yellow Crowned Night Herons, one mature Black Crowned Night Heron, several Mallards, and what might have been a dozen Black Ducks, and a lot of Sandpipers.  A good day for birds, but not like yesterday.  Anyway, we ran out of water at the root ball, and it would be at least an hour before we would be able to continue, so we turned and headed back out.

Hugging the river right bank, the wind wasn't bad.  Cut over and took the side exit and then headed back up river.