Happy New Year Swamp Float!

[Susan Tinker]

Thanks for another great first day of the year float! We really appreciate you taking us on new adventures and the Debo cider is awesome!

Happy Paddlin' New Year and enjoyed seeing everyone to start out the new year!

Thanks Debo and Cowper!
Susan T

[MikeBeebe]

Starting the New Year floating was an excellent beginning. Thanks to Debo and Cowper for putting this together again this year. Happy New Year to all!

Mike Beebe

[Lupe]

Another magical day in the swamp! Neatest thing was we came upon this furry bundle curled up on a log in the middle of the swamp...apparently this little otter had stayed up too late New Year's Eve and was trying to sleep off all that late night and early morning partying. By the time the little fellow woke up to Cowpers "cluck clucking," he had a semi-circle of 10 paddlers looking at him! Poor guy had to swim off to find a new perch to finish sleeping off those New Year's Eve cobwebs!

Thanks for another excellent way to greet the new year!

[toltecs]

Can you tell us about the mechanics of the trip? Did you paddle from Hickson lake to Hwy 70? At about 15.8 ft and falling on the Morton gage, were there any portages?

I am sorry I couldn't make it to join you.

Thanks in advance.

[DeBo]

Yes, we paddled from Hickson Lake to Apple Lake. The level was perfect. There was good flow in the river and some manuevering around logs and cypress knees but no portages. It was an excellent day on the river with a great group of people. Afterward we ate at Nick's Barbeque in Carlisle. More trips in the future. Join us if you can.

[Cowper]

Can you tell us about the mechanics of the trip? Did you paddle from Hickson lake to Hwy 70? At about 15.8 ft and falling on the Morton gage, were there any portages?

Trip distance is the biggest question:
As measured on a map: 5.0 miles
As recorded by the GPS odometer - 5.6 miles
As recorded by the GPS track log - 6.9 miles

The track log always reads "high" due to cumulative errors from taking hundreds of data points, so my best guess would be that we actually travelled about 5.5 miles. Our route was a little bit longer than usual; the water was high enough that after we left Hickson we paddled some alternate routes through the woods instead of trying to stay on the main channel as shown on the maps. Total time on the water was 5 and one half hours.

On level, the key is not so much how high the gage reading is on the day you go, but more the history of what has it been for the last five days before that? There is up to a five day lag time between when the Morton gage shows a "spike" and when the water makes it down to and fills in the Dagmar wetlands. The reason we had such a good float was because Morton had been showing above 16 feet since December 25, so we were paddling on "day 8" past when it first went above 16. By the same reasoning, I think even now that the gage is below 15 and falling, there will probably be 5 more days of paddling almost as good as what we had, and maybe a couple of weeks of really good paddling levels in this area.

[Karla]

Cowper, you should post a picture of our little otter friend.

Karla

[Cowper]

OK.

First, I liked this shot because it shows about 1/2 of our group, as well as the character of the woodlands we were paddling through...



And as requested, our "friend" right after I woke him up....

[Karla]

Great pictures of the group and our little friend. I was dry in that picture too.

Karla

[Lupe]

Finally got around to uploading a bunch of pics, including those from our New Year's Bayou de View trip:

Pics here: http://community.webshots.com/slideshow ... Position=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Including star of the day...



Cheers

[Karla]

Great pictures Heather. Didn't realize you got all those ones of the otter. Love your camera. It takes great pics. How many megapixels?
You really captured everyone well with the close up shots esp. our otter friend. Watch it Dan, Heather is catching up with you on the great shots.

Karla

[MikeBeebe]

Great pictures Heather. You should be behind the lens all the time. Excellent photography particularly of the otter. Next time we have to get your picture in here as well.

Mike