MOONLIGHT CANOEING THE WOOD RIVER WETLANDS

Nancy and I went moonlight canoeing into the Wood River Wetlands tonight with her brother and his wife Ann, and two other couples.

We left the staging area just at sunset, 9:00 PM, with a full moon just rising above the eastern horizon; a perfect evening. There was no wind, zero, the temperature was just right, at around 75˚.

Amongst the eight of us everyone except Nancy and I were in single Kayaks; Nancy and I were together in an aluminum canoe. In the still waters, with no wind, we seemed to do as well as the Kkyakers.

It soon got dark after our departure. Everyone had adorned himself or herself with, Cyalume, "Glow Sticks", prior to departure; it was stunning to see all of us weaving our ways through the wetlands channels flashing our ghostly, polychromatic, lights. The moonlight provided us with adequate light to navigate the channels.

As we navigate through the rushes one could hear the, "splash kerplunk", of beavers warning others of our approach. We also sent numerous Black Crowned Night Herons and several Great Egrets to flying away from their roosts. We all felt bad for disturbing them so soon after they had settled in for the night. Nancy and I had a beaver swimming right along beside our canoe for several seconds; Nancy had our big flashlight shinning right on it. We saw several River Otters too, but they were much shyer and would keep to a greater distance from us.
Our channel pathway through the wetlands was actually the main channel of the Wood River. It eventually opens into the northern end of Klamath Lake (AKA Agency Lake). We only went a few hundred feet out into the lake and turned around for our return and had a really difficult time finding our way back into the channel and the wetlands. Without the full moon I don’t think we would have ever found it!

We all made it safely, and dry, back to our departure point; our little foray lasted just a few minutes over two hours. The most amazing thing about the trip, I realized afterward, was there were no mosquitoes! We went the entire distance with no mosquito attacks!