Dog River Orange Hues

Saw some Green Arrow Arum (Peltandra virginica) that had unusual orange colored stems.

Closeup of the stem seen in the above photo. Some research on the Internet revealed the orange color on the Green Arums is the result of Rust Fungi (Uromyces caladii). The Rust Fungi is known to grow on another member of the Arum Family called Jack in the Pulpit.

The plant Rust can also be seen on the top of some Green Arum leaves.

A closeup view of the Rust Fungi.

Sunset on Dog River is another source of orange hues.

08/11/2012 - Seda Mail

Interesting use of a Seda kayak that was ruined in a hurricane.

08/16/2011 - Jose Creb Bayou and Bayou Matche

Launch: Cedar Creek Landing east of Movico, AL
Launch Cost: $5
Destination: Exploratory paddle of Jose Creb Bayou and Bayou Matche. I also paddled into Grady Hall Creek and Conrad Creek but was not able to get very far into either one. I found both Bayous to be quite boring in terms of scenery.
Distance: 27 miles (round trip). It is a long trip because there are no launch sites any closer.
Paddle time: 7-1/4 hours
Weather: Slightly foggy at sunrise on a cool morning with temps in the 60s which is unusual for August. However, temps quickly rose 25-30 degrees and it became another hot day in Alabama. Sunny. Neap tides. Minimal (<0.5 mph) current. No waves. 5 mph winds.
GPS Track: To view or download the GPS track of this trip, Click Here.

Header Image is a photo of some small flies on the underside of a mushroom growing from a decaying tree.

Nice cool sunrise on Cedar Creek.

Conditions were about perfect for kayaking today as the nearly full moon sets.

In 2007 the Barry Electric Plant ranked 25th of the top 30 mercury emitting power plants in the United States. This plant seems to be responsible for many of the fish consumption warnings, such as Cold Creek where the public is advised to consume NO fish caught in it because of high levels of mercury found in the fish. The increased risk of Autism is supposedly linked to how close one lives to a power plant. Enjoy your mercury laden Alabama Seafood caught downstream of this plant, and that includes Mobile Bay.

Sensitive Briar (Schrankia microphylla) is an odd plant because if you touch the leaves, they quickly fold up.

Speaking of oddities, check out this slime the size of a softball that was attached to a limb hanging into the water.

Speaking of slimy, in the upper end of Jose Creb Bayou, the water was coated with slime so thick that it trapped bubbles. You can imagine what the sides of the kayak looked like when I got back to the launch site.

There were a lot of blue herons in the bayous.

There were also many turtles out sunning and most were very small.

Tugboat Charlotte Roush was pushing 9 barges down the Mobile River. 

This Coast Guard Cutter, Cimarron (WLR-65502) is classified with River Buoy Tenders (WLR). WLRs push barges equipped with cranes which work Aids To Navigation (ATON). Some are equipped with "jetting" devices which are used to set and anchor buoys in rivers with sandy/muddy bottoms. The remarkable thing about this Coast Guard Cutter is it was commissioned in about 1960 making it 50 years old. Wow! The Coast Guard takes care of its assets and certainly makes the most of them. The captain of this vessel was courteous and slowed down for me. Big kudos to the Coast Guard!

Peek-a-boo, I see you.

I'm seeing less and less big alligators in the Delta and when I do see them now, many are like this alligator on Cedar Creek - dead. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources sanctions the senseless slaughter of big Alligators under the guise of population control because it considers big Alligators as a nuisance to the public. Of course, the byproduct of allowable hunts and the ensuing media sensationalism is the public perception that it is okay to kill the shy reptiles. Scenes like this are sure going to attract eco-tourism (NOT!). Forever Wild = Forever Hunted. There is no safe refuge for animals in the vast Mobile-Tensaw River Delta.

08/02/2011 - Three Rivers Lake

Launch: Olin Boat Launch in McIntosh, AL
Launch Cost: Free
Destination: Having never paddled the Three Rivers Lake and Otter Bayou area, I decided to explore the waterway perimeters. I tried to paddle Three Rivers Lake back in 2006 but was unsuccessful due to high waters.
Distance: 22 miles (round trip)
Paddle time: 7-1/4 hours
Weather: Sunny. Warm morning to Scorching Hot afternoon. No wind. Tide was low and beginning rise. Current was limited to about 1 mph.
GPS Track: To view or download the GPS track of this trip, Click Here.

Header Image is a photomerge of a large sandbar located north of the McIntosh launch site.

Sunrise on the Tombigbee River.

Nice thing about the Tombigbee River up here is there are solid bottom sand bars to get out on.

Not much water movement in Otter Bayou. I tried to go to Side Lake Bayou but the channel water level was too low.

There were quite a few people fishing in Three Rivers Lake. This fellow was fishing with 5-6 poles.

This odd looking thing was on the side of a tree well above the water line. Something must be having quite a feast on the tree.

In areas where water levels vary greatly, bare limb hooks can be dangling at face level. These abandoned limb hooks catch whatever isn't paying attention and that can include kayakers.

An alligator came swimming up to the kayak and we had a momentary stalemate. It finally went under water after I tried to ram it.

What is there to do on a hot lazy afternoon? This alligator was sleeping.

There were a lot of nice cypress trees in Three Rivers Lake.

Way up stream, the forest shows signs of being flooded frequently as a dark moss grows high up on the tree trunks.

Nestled in the middle of a hollowed out cypress tree sat the biggest water snake I've ever seen with a body diameter of 2-3 inches.

Turtles have very good eye sight as most dropped into the water before I ever saw them.

Out on the Tombigbee across from Three Rivers Lake are some river gauges. Today's elevation was 1 foot. The river gauges go up to 22 feet. Water levels can vary widely here so make sure you check the river level forecast before paddling up in this area. It is also wise to plan your trip so you go upstream from the launch spot so if heavy rains did occur and you wanted to return back to the launch site you would not have to fight the current on the return trip.

This turkey vulture followed me for about a mile but I wasn't ready to give up the ghost yet.

07/06/2011 - Bangs Lake

Launch: Point O' Pines boat launch on Bayou Cumbest.
Launch Cost: $3.00
Destination: Exploratory paddle - First destination was to go up Bayou Cumbest to a canal and see if I could paddle the canal all the way up to the Alligator Farm place on Highway 90. The backup option was to explore the canals around Chevron and explore the north end of Bangs Lake.
Distance: 21.6 miles (round trip)
Paddle time: 6 hours
Weather: Humid morning with a big offshore thunderstorm. Almost no wind. Tide was coming in. Current was less than 1/2 mph.
Caution Note: If you plan on making a kayak trip in this area, make sure you have a GPS and hopefully a pre-defined route or track uploaded into the GPS. The Grand Bay NERR territory is vast and you can easily get lost.
GPS Track: To view or download the GPS track of this trip, Click Here.

Header image is a photo of a wooden pier covered by little crabs.

1) The rising sun colorizes a thunderstorm. Do I go or not? I went.

2) Wonderful sunrise on Bayou Cumbest.

3) After turning into the canal about two miles north of the launch site, there was a bridge with a very low clearance and since the tide was rising, I didn't want to go under and have to portage on the way back. Also, there were two types of mean ass flies beginning to swarm around me in the narrow canal despite being coated with insect repellent.

4) On to plan B which was to kayak over near Chevron and to the upper reaches of Bang Lake. These are sandpiper like birds on the oyster shell shallows. The Chevron refinery can be seen in the background.

5) These two fellows were working the crab traps.

6) We got back to the boat ramp at the same time. This is their haul - about 700 blue crabs. One fellow said they used to catch 2-3 thousand crabs in the old days in the same amount of time. He doesn't know why the crab population went down. With fuel prices rising, cheap competition from other countries driving prices low, high cost of bait, and declining catches, they don't make much money for the hard work they do.

7) At the Point O' Pines launch site, there is equipment pumping oxygen into the water. I couldn't find out why, but, all this area is part of the Grand Bay NERR.

8) There are all sorts of monitoring devices in the Grand Bay Reserve and there are experiments going on.

9) Not many trees in the lower Grand Bay Reserve so I was concerned about thunderstorms forming. Did catch a few rain drops while the sun was still shining.

10) 20 minutes after I got back, the clouds let loose with heavy rain and wicked lightning. I got lucky again.

11) It is pretty easy to identify the edible but salty Pickleweed plant aka Virginia Glasswort (Salicornia ambigua or virginica).

12) Not sure what the name is of this succulent type plant with the fuzzy flowers., I'll research into it and update this post later. (Update: The small succulent like plant is Batis maritima commonly called Saltwort or Turtleweed. Thanks go to Jen at the Grand Bay NWR for identifying the plant.)

06/02/2011 - Robinson Bayou Sunrise Paddle

Header image of a pickerelweed flower.

1) Sunrise on Robinson Bayou.

2) Eerie view looking out from a box culvert under Dauphin Island Parkway.

3) Marsh-pink or Coastal Plain Sabatia (Sabatia calycina).

4) Arrowhead flowers (Sagittaria).

5) I don't know if it is the heat or what, but every time the kayak brushed up against leaves or stumps, the kayak got coated with ants. Ants were everywhere on today's paddle.

6) I stuck the camera lens as close to the fly as possible and it didn't move. It appears to be an Alabama long-legged fly (Condylostylus)

7) Strange things are going on with some of the bull-tongue arrowhead leaves. Got Milk?

8) See if you can follow this interesting maze where an insect started eating in a leaf until it was big enough to break out of the leaf and either crawl or fly away.

9) Thank you Rebecca and Sean for your recent wedding trash in Dog River. 

10) Are snails capable of having a quickie?

11) It is pretty easy to identify lanceleaf or bull-tongue arrowhead plants, but the taller plants with grass like blades without flowers are more difficult to identify. That might be a problem if you are trying to find cattails because of their edibility.

12) In this photo are two similar grassy blade looking plants with different flowers. The tall flower spikes are Saw Grass (Cladium jamaicense) and the smaller dark spikes are cattails (Typha latifolia).

13) The difference between Saw Grass and Cattails is the leaves of Cattails come together at the base as in this photo, whereas, with Saw Grass, the leaves are not confined to the base and they continue up the main flowering stem.

14) If the flower wasn't there, the easiest way to tell the difference between Saw Grass and Cattails is by the blades. In these cross sections, Saw Grass is on the left and it is sharply angled about 90 degrees on the inside, and the blade is relatively hard. They call it Saw Grass because if you run your finger along the edges of the blade, tiny barbs make it feel like a saw whereas the cattail blade is smooth. The spongier and softer Cattail blade cross section is the one on the right - it is thicker in the center and gently curved instead of sharp angled.