Today was a warm with clear blue skies, the sun stating to gain momentum on bringing in the summer’s life of plants, trees and animals. Two years ago Nate and I kayaked down the Pushaw Stream, a near 10 mile journey; I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to go again with Robin.
This time around I did not want to kayak for 10 miles so we parked Robin’s car at the halfway mark, the point where the stream cuts through Sunkhaze Wildlife Reserve and flows underneath the Hudson Road. We drove my car to the end of a camp road on Pushaw near the beginning of the stream and were told to leave, that this particular end of the road was private; the woman was very rude and difficult to deal with so asked her neighbor if I could park in their turn around for a few hours, she allowed us. After the 30 minute parking ordeal we put in and kayaked to the dam and started out adventure.
It was evident that the stream had recently flooded due to melting snow as the bushes and trees along the banks were water stained in an even line; the bottom half were white and wilted whilst the top were green. Signs of summer were setting in; leaves have grown in fully, grass and other plants starting to thicken and signs of migratory animals showing up. When we arrived to the portion of the stream that hosted 20 Painted turtles there were none to be seen, which was very disappointing to me as I brought my camera specifically to photograph them sun bathing.
We continued on until the stream widened until it was 200 feet wide and just leaned back in our kayaks with our legs out basking in the sun as if we were reptiles, taking in God’s beautiful orchestra of nature. Robin noticed something was rustling in the grass along the shore; I looked over and saw that it was an American Bittern. I switched to my 70-300 lens and paddled slowly towards it, it either did not notice me or care that I was nearby. The fowl was intently looking down towards the water, slowly moving over and through bushes exposing its oddly colored green legs. It stopped and stood as if were a statue of stone, I too stopped and watched and suddenly it appeared that it tripped but it was actually catching its prey, a small Chub, swallowed whole.
We passed beneath the first bridge and entered into Hirundo Wildlife Refuge. The ecosystem changed from a wide stream and uncovered overhead to a narrower and shallow passage with the majority of the overhead being covered by large pines and deciduous trees. We Spotted a young beaver swimming along, unfortunately it was shy and submerged itself. I noticed a little stream joining Pushaw Stream to my left, it was a beautiful scene, a set of large maple trees hung over the mouth of the stream, its leaves illuminated by the sun and in the background a field, what a peaceful place or at least it would have been without the misquotes.
Shortly after we came upon a rocky area in the stream, the elevation dropped which created a fast moving area of water, Robin’s first “fast” water. Just before the elevation drop was the remains of an old stone bridge, an interesting item to see in the area. I can still hear Robin’s scream of excitement as she was pushed and pulled down the shallow water, after we passed I explained to her that at the end of the trip there’s another section similar to this but a bit longer and with faster water.
We reached the passage of fast moving water, I went first with my camera bag tucked between my legs and Robin followed behind me, the water was high here which allowed us to move very quickly over the boulders. I had such a good time that I went again by myself as Robin took a few photos of me, this time around my kayak was filled with water due to me preventing a flip.
