Quiet paddle on the Yahara River in McFarland, Wisconsin that featured many heron, dragonflies and a few memorable characters.
The Launch – heron party
Quite a few interesting things happened while preparing to launch. First thing we noticed was a great number of heron were gathered. There were 8-12 heron visible from Jaeger Park boat ramp. That’s more than we have ever seen congregate. There was also dredging equipment parked near the launch. We were leery, but pleased that the work was not as intrusive as previous years. Then there were two guys getting off the river in their small motorized fishing boat. To our surprise, they loaded it onto the typical boat trailer but they had no car! They walked their boat out of the park and explained that they would walk it all the way back home. Very unusual. Very cool.
The Paddle – dragonflies
It was fun to see so many dragonflies around. The water was very quiet and reflective even thought here was a bit of a breeze. It was pretty uneventful except at the end of the paddle when a teenaged (we guess?) boy came toward us on a jet-ski. No problem at that point, but the river was full of weeds and we discussed that it was a really stupid inexperienced idea to get off the big lake and come into the weedy river. Fifteen minutes later he came up behind us going quite fast – we told him to cut it out, the river is 100% no wake and clearly marked. He said the weeds were getting caught in his motor (duh) so he “couldn’t help it” and pretty much went full throttle once out of earshot of our complaints.
Wildlife: lots of heron and tons of dragonflies plus deer, egret, muskrat, turtles, frogs (heard), swallows, and other common birds.
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