Pipestone Creek at Coal Lake

I dragged the kid out to Coal Lake and up Pipestone Creek before she went off to work in the mountains for the summer. It was busy at the launch with both people unloading to kayak and fish.

While we crossed over the north edge of the swamp towards the creek entrance, we saw a tonne of birds, including a dozen pelicans.

We also saw a yellow-headed black bird.

For the most part, though, we saw red-headed black birds (a hundred?).

The creek was a super interesting paddle, as you transition from swamp to forest to open glades to forest, to marsh. A super interesting paddle.

There are a huge number of swallows nesting under the bridge, flying out to get bugs and return to feed the young in their mud nests. You could hear the young as we floated under. 

It was a beautiful day to be the the water (despite the bloom of mayflies).

As we were loading up, this poor fellow paddle this boat in, having forgotten to gas up. He had a much harder paddle than we did.