As we waited for the lakes to melt out, we were back on the Sturgeon last weekend, spending two-and-half hours paddling up and collecting garbage. We put in at Red Willow Park again.
Street parking, then through the gates and the trees beyond, over the marsh and into the river from the bank. It was a bit muckier this time as the ground had thawed.
The water was at summer levels (so 12-36" deep). We chased two heron up the river for awhile (one is seated on the broken beaver dam below).
There were also ducks, geese, and briefly a bunch of robins fleeing some kind of small hawk.
Jenn managed to get a reusable shopping bag full of bottles and plastics (the bag itself also came from the river) before giving up.
Round trip was about 6km. About 2 hours going upstream (current, wind, garbage picking) and 30 minutes back down!
Overall, it was lovely. We turned around at the Mission boat launch (below). The launch is far out of the water and pretty grown in. I would think a bank launch would be easier than using it.
We had a lovely return trip. I managed to run around by taking the left change when the river braided. We also got to watch some guys in a canoe somehow dip their gunwale below the water and get wet.
Getting out was tricky because the boat kept slipping back down the muck when I shifted my weight to stand up. I also managed to cut myself (somehow???) getting out of the boat and left behind a small trail of blood for you to follow back to the river.
It looks like Astotin is open so I hope to hit that this week.
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