March 22 - Grassy Lake Water Trail

[Stan]

I spent Thursday & Friday at Grassy. There is plenty of water! Last Sunday night's rain flooded the area. On Thursday the section of Grassy Lake Road near I-40 was flooded. I was able to get to the put-in by taking I-40 Exit 135 (Highway 89). If traveling west on I-40, turn Right at the end of the exit ramp. Turn Right again onto the frontage road. When the road forks stay Right. This frontage road connects with Grassy Lake Road near the Parlarm Creek bridge.

The water level on Friday was about a foot lower than Thursday's and I was able to drive Grassy Lake Road under I-40 Friday afternoon. The water level should be OK for awhile.

Last year I was able to paddle the water trail into late August. I had to "work" at times to get over logs & floating vegetation. Fortunately there is a large beaver dam at the end of the Bell Slough Spur section of the trail. This beaver dam plus a couple of other beaver dams on the spur helps hold the water.

The number of birds in Grassy is amazing. I am a very amateur birder. I recently tallied up the number of birds species that I have identified in Grassy & came up with 65. On Friday I watched on osprey soar over the "seasonally flooded" area (which was flooded at the time.)

"Stan" AKA Margaret Bartelt

[jrsteffes]

Thanks so much "Stan" I will be checking it out tomorrow!