San Bernard River (Blue Hole)
May 9, 2020
by Kent Walters
Photo by Bruce Bodson
We started our informal "Out and Back" at the Bates Allen Park parking lot / boat ramp at 10:00 AM. We unloaded and prepped our boats, took the mandatory group selfie, and were on the water by 10:35. It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze. We paddled downstream through the vivid greens of the cypress trees, and came to our log jam turning point about a half-hour later. We started to work our way back upstream, poking into several interesting side channels.
Wildlife to this point consisted of Great Blue Herons, several unidentified splashes, a prothonotary warbler, a family of beavers crossing a pond just beyond a log jam in one of the tributaries, and a brazen little red-eared slider.
Red-ear slider
We paddled past our put-in and saw a pair of little blue herons. Again, the greens of the bald cypress and black ash were stunning. The cypress knees were very tall and spread long distances from their parent trees. I was paddling behind Joe when I saw a small, confused fish jump onto the back of his kayak and slide back into the water. Bruce reported that he saw gar that were half the length of my kayak. I didn’t have polarizing sunglasses, so I didn’t see any of them myself.
We arrived at the field of cypress knees that usually signals the end of the road on the upstream segment.
We looked over its accompanying log jam and saw a family of otters. One of the babies came through the logs, right up to the front of my kayak and looked up at me. And then he was gone. Very cute, wet, curious little face. Bruce got some great shots of one of the adults on shore:
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| Otter - on alert |
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Otter - Curious |
| Photos by Bruce Bodson |
Bruce went further than the rest of us through the toothy cypress knee obstacle course. Joe and I made our way into the otter pond and pushed to the end of it before turning back, leaving Bruce a message that we were doing our about-face. As we were leaving this area, we saw two barn owls.
Bruce rejoined us shortly and we made our way leisurely back downstream to the take-out, taking pictures and enjoying the other-worldly scenery.
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| Grown together |
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Hollow |
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Joe, Bruce & Tree
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Where we went:
(Click to enlarge)
Photo Album Links: Kent Walters
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The author, Kent Walters |