Wolf River: Bateman to Moscow, June 9th, 2013

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Bateman to Moscow

            To celebrate the beautiful weather, John Henry and I paddled the next bridge to bridge trip, Bateman to Moscow. We were interested in the condition of the canoe trail. We found the old trail to be only a few inches deep for a hundred yard stretch through the grassland area.  It wasn’t difficult to drag the boats on the shallow, moving water, but most people aren’t willing to do that. This means group trips may have to be halted until another trail is opened. Since it was late in the afternoon, we did not wish to explore a new trail. However, we did meet a man and his son who had tried the new trail. They were sitting, exhausted on the riverbank. The man told us that spatterdock made the paddle difficult, and he didn’t recommend it. Experienced Wolf paddlers know that heavy vegetation can slow progress to as little as a hundred yards an hour.

            We explored an open, running slough on the left bank for a possible new path around the grassland. This is the same slough with the abandoned shack. It didn’t look promising; no matter where the new trail will be there will have to be some sawing and bush whacking. We also discussed exploring some tributaries on the right bank by going upstream in kayaks. 

            Throughout the afternoon, it was becoming apparent that the beautiful day was disappearing. Rows of dark blue gray clouds were pushing in from the west. Flashes of lightening grew closer as we made a dash for it . The rain pelted us almost non-stop from a mile above the cypress swamp until the time we left. It wasn’t pleasant and I was glad that we were not struck by lightening. On the plus side, the cloud filtered sunlight created an enchanting if not eerie river scape in the cypress forest. I think I could faintly hear the ringing of the Moscow church bells between the peals of thunder.