Backwater Travel

Looking for all the world like we’ve entered a canal with no outlet we ease down the quietly moving water towards a wall of cattails. On what will be our last foray in the boat we’ve decided to skip the blast up the river in favor of quietly sipping fuel to explore the nooks and crannies that start immediately from the launch area of Squaw Lake into what is termed the “backwaters”.

It’s quiet, tranquil, serene. We end up lost half the day but know by heading north we’ll keep to the general direction we need to be. We backtrack some; run aground on sandbars (an anomaly here in the sloughs) and then later enter great and small lakes that we enjoy all to ourselves. We gaze down at many large fish along the way.

At lunch, finding one such lake, we tie up to an old snag. We get a little tangled so Marc jumps in after fashioning a not-so-ideal ladder. Since this section of water is deeper, it is a little cooler and takes his breath away momentarily. Back aboard, we lazily drift around the snag with the wind, this way and that as we gaze out on the colorful rock hills and landslides around us. We need this quietude desperately.

We continue our trek of discovery up-slough; a new sight waiting around every bend. We marvel we are just about the only ones here; we’ve seen a few jet-skiis and fishing boats on the larger lakes but no one else in the channels and canals. Once again, we also see a lot of bird life.

After our exploration of Lake Ferguson, which features good depths and boat-in campsites, we head down the main river to a sandbar and take cool refuge in the flowing river as it passes our chairs; taking our minds and thoughts free-flowing downstream with it. I guess it’s been a good last day on the river.