4/6/2019 Hunter’s Bridge to Lytle Bay

Well we got started on April 7th this year–two weeks earlier than last year. We were undecided at first due to the weather–it was raining. We decided to take a one hour rain delay to asses the situation and have breakfast, sort of work up the courage to get the year started. In the end we were undecided but by a vote of 4-2 we decided to go. It turned out, as always, to be the right decision. We had a great season opener with temperatures that did eventually reach 65° and we had some sun at the end. In the middle we had a few light rain drops, but of no consequence. We were joined by 2 rookies, one from the La Crosse area (Steve–Kroggie) and one from totally out of the world of reality. Chip was visiting the area from the East Coast (Londonberry, New Hampshire–Home of the famous organic yogurt maker, Stonyfield Farms) So obviously Chip was excited to see what the “real” world was all about, so we showed him some good old Wisconsin hospitality and reality. He may never come back 🙂 We had a great day with both of them, hopefully they had a good time as well.

Our day start late, as I said, but our conditions were: A little snow still on the ground in places, but water temperature 42°, River Stage was a little high at 7.8 feet, but very calm. The current was at a nice pace with a river flow of 6,000 cfs, so no one had to work to hard for the day. We did travel 12.1 miles in just over 3 hours, with a break for lunch, not many other sand bars available for stopping .

We saw more Eagles yesterday than we normally do–about 12 different ones, they were flying around us so much it was hard to keep track of which were the same birds we saw earlier, but a great day. It met the requirements for Chip, he had wanted to see a few Eagles, so we far surpassed that. We were able to get very close to one huge Eagle, but unfortunately it was due to some injury or illness. He fell in the water on take off, and actually swam a perfect over wing stroke back to shore, just like an Olympian. After checking with my resident expert on Sunday morning (Marc) he said it is very likely lead poisoning, and the bird will not survive. Lots of ducks and some other small animal activity. A typical perfect kayak trip.

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