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TRIP-AT-A-GLANCE: DeGray Lake - Arlie Moore (Oak Bower)
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DATE / TIME
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1 August 2023 - Meet at 06:00, on water at 06:25
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PUT-IN
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Arlie Moore Boat Launch
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TAKE-OUT
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Arlie Moore Boat Launch
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GAGE (Pool Level)
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402.78' (Caddo River at DeGray Dam)
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FLOW
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0 (it's a lake)
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AIR TEMPERATURE
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75°F to 87°F - not bad
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PRECIPITATION
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None
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WIND
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Mostly still - Light breeze from S some of the time
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PARTICIPANTS
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Sam Reyna, Kent Walters
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KAYAK TYPES
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Perception Conduit, Pyranha Fusion
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CLOUDS
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Sunny
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PADDLING MILES
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6.2
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Arriving at the Arlie Moore put-in
We met at 06:00 at my house, loaded and secured kayaks and got on the water just after 06:25. The moon was full and illuminated the water nicely from the west. The sun was lighting up the sky in the east but was not yet over the horizon as we started paddling north into the large side channel off the main lake toward the Oak Bower section.
It’s 6:24 am, and we’re ready to go
6:32 am – crossing a channel
6:46 am, and the sun is almost up – it peeked over the horizon a few minutes later
We paddled across several minor side channels on the east side of our channel as the sun came up and over the treetops. We saw some deer, great blue heron, a bald eagle and cattle egrets on our way to the end of the channel, along with several “V”s of geese gaggling along our same direction.
We arrived at the end of our piece of the lake after a couple of miles of paddling and reconnected with all of the geese that had been flying over us, along with some ducks, cormorants, a little green heron, kildeer, and some juvenile little blue herons.
Little blue heron hunting
While there, we encountered a downed tree that had quite a bit of hardware on what would have been near the top of it when it was alive, which Sam salvaged.
We turned back, skirting the western shore for most of the way. We saw more deer (a doe and her large fawn) and a hawk. We stopped and got out to take photos of deer and racoon tracks, flowers, and other vegetation artifacts.
We reversed direction into a side channel and explored it. I rounded a point and startled a large, solitary beaver, who waddled down to the water, swam out a few yards and splashed his warning signal. Pretty cool.
Then we were off across the main channel to the east, where I found an interesting root configuration:
We completed the last mile of our journey and found all as we left it, except for the dramatic increase in solar energy.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Start early morning explorations on shady side first to minimize the amount of low sun in your eyes.
Please see photo album here.