Mile 68.5 - LBD Blue Heron Point
68.5 LBD Blue Heron Point
There is a beautiful cubbyhole of a landing as you paddle over the top of Blue Heron Point, but its posted “No Tresspassing.” Keep paddling a little further downstream and you will discover a modest ridge of willows with dry ground up to bank full around 24 KG. This willow wetlands is exploding with tons of wildlife, especially amphibians and birds behind ridge. Good picnicking and camping up to 24 KG. Blue Heron Point is a thin sliver of willow-topped sandy ridge with some alders, some sumac and poison ivy, also purple vetch; but no cockleburrs. In the springtime the frogs make a raucous roar well into the night, until after midnight. Some of the creatures we saw at camp in March 2015: Amphibians seen include peepers, leopard toads, and bright green lizards; We heard some barred and great horned owls on the opposite shore towards Butte La Rose; beaver slide by in the mist, softly grunting to each other in throaty gutterals; two herons pass overhead while fish tails sploshings are heard in the backwaters; mosquito hawks hovering overhead along with Caddis flies. Other birds we have been seeing: anhingas, bald eagles, tufted and pileated woodpeckers, crows, egrets, ducks and cardinals. The vegetation seems to have changed slightly below the I-10 bridge. THere are more cypress trees along the main channel, and more scrub oaks, saw grass, bull rush, and something that looks like pampas grass.
From the Mark River Journals: “I wake on a tiny peninsula along Whiskey Bay navigational channel next to a tiny swamp full of yellow rockets and driftwood. The evening before, Driftwood Johnny took a swim in the debris infested swamp and noticed the temperature was quite warmer than the main channel. That let me know the spawn is upon us. Large gar and black bass splash in the swamp throughout the night preparing for the most exciting time for animals of all kinds- the spawn. The spawn is the time of plenty for most animals. The flooding and warming of these waters triggers reptiles and amphibians of the arrival of spring, the time to reproduce and celebrate the welcoming of new generations.”