Looking at the Gulf Coast Trip Report index. it's been many days since I posted a report and many miles. Hopefully I'm done running from the cold and will be paddling regularly from now on. That is, assuming I learn to cope with the voracious mosquitoes on the coast. There weren't any here, many miles from the coast, though.
Last night was in the low-40's to high-30's. A heavy fog had moved in and a heavy dew covered everything. A new lesson learned is don't park on the grass as that increases the condensation. Things warmed up once the sun came up and burned off most of the fog.
I launched onto the B.A. Steinhagen Lake near Jasper from the Sandy Creek Park put in around 9:30am. The sun had brightened the skies up quite a bit by then, temperatures to the mid-50's, water temperature was about 52 degrees. I had been awakened this morning to a great many shotgun blasts. Presumably duck season is here. Two tiny motorboats zoomed up and down the lake so I didn't feel too guilty as I shoved off from shore. I had on my bright red PFD to make me stand out a little more. Didn't wanna get mistook for a duck!
I paddled out into a fairly large cove. A couple of dozen small, short cypress trees had spread themselves around half the cove. Their normally green needles had turned a burnt orange or a dull red color. Right away a critter surprised me. I didn't see it until it was diving so didn't get a good look at it.
The bright green of the many water plants contrasted sharply with the cypress colors. With the cherry size pine cone thingies dangling from many cypress limbs it presented a nice Christmassie feeling.
I found a small creek Creek and followed it a ways. Earlier I'd seen several blue herons, American egrets, anhinga and turkey vultures. Paddling up the creek I watched dozens of tiny song birds flitting about. A red headed pilated woodpecker (one of those guys with the Woody Woodpecker top knot) was pecking away at a log projecting up out of the water.
I was disappointed when the creek was cut off by a two foot high bridge. It was then I realized I was on Sandy Creek, having passed over the bridge to the put in earlier. On the way back a bright red cardinal watched me from a branch. Several pairs of ducks had taken refuge in the creek from the hunters and weren't pleased to see me. The males had blackheads.
Sandy Creek and East End (Army Corps of Engineers) Campgrounds both border the cove but are unobtrusive. Paddling out of the cove I found a second fairly large cove and a long peninsula jutting out into the main part of the lake.
I could see half a dozen white things swimming around about half a mile away. My first thought was white pelicans but, no, they're salt water birds. I then thought they might be white trumpeter swans. I closed in on them and when I was still .25 miles away their long, orange bills began to take shape. Getting out the cheapy binoculars I saw they were indeed, white pelicans swimming with 50-75 ducks. The ducks weren't dumb. They knew they were safe from the hunters in their blinds way out there. Looking around the lake I spotted a dozen more white specks. Half of those turned out to be buoys or makers. Dunno what the others were. They were gone by the time I got in range.
Out in the middle of the lake I could see US 190 off to the right but couldn't see the mile long concrete levee and dam to the left, where I camped last night. Not having an overwhelming urge to see it from the water I turned right. 1-2 miles off in the distance appeared to be many, many cypress trees out in the water, away from shore.
As I got nearer I found hundreds of cypress trees scattered here and there in 4+ feet of water. They gave the appearance of a manicured park. Clumps of saw grass, beds of water plants and downed logs and stumps with turtles soaking up the sun added to the landscaped effect.
I had lunch there but the noise from US 190 chased me away. The state park with its long shoreline of grass and seawall detracted from the overall effect of the lake. The sun had little wind to cool it down and I was kinda sweaty by the time I got back to the put in.