03-17-12

Bob and I kayaked the Bill Williams River yesterday.

We started at the Kayak launch at the Wildlife Headquarters north of Parker and just south of the 95 bridge.

 

It is a long paddle from the launch to the mouth of the river.

The mouth is wide with islands splitting it up. We stayed to the right here and paddled up the river and under the bridge.

Along the way we saw a couple of muskrats but they were too fast to get pictures of. I did get a shot of an Egret.

  

A little ways further along we took the left fork. It was narrower than the main channel.

and got narrower

and narrower

and narrower

until we got to a spot that was choked with branches where we decided to turn around.

We found a spot along the shore where we stopped for lunch. It took two tries for me to get out of the boat.

but I managed it without upsetting the boat and we broke for lunch.

After lunch we returned to the main channel and continued up stream for another mile or so before we decided to head back.

We saw more birds. I got a picture of a King Fisher

 

and some Coots.

and another Egret.

When we got back to the main body of the lake it was very windy

but with a little hard paddling we made it.

Bob left for home this morning around 9:00. I think he missed the River.Thanks Bob, for all the pictures you took on our adventures.

Dave went to Yuma yesterday to get Detroit lockers installed in the rear of his jeep.

Today (Saturday) we went to Dripping Springs to try them out. We stopped to play at one of the waterfalls in the wash. Junior was the first to take on the steep part of the step and scared himself going down the easy part.

But he made a successful run going up the hard part.

 

Then he tried to climb the rock but couldn’t get all the way up.

Next it was Dave’s turn.

but unfortunately his bumpers are too long and his tires too small so he didn’t make it ether dew to clearance issues.

The next one to try climbing the waterfall was Dennis in his Rhino.

He probably would have made it but ran into clearance problems also.

I know my jeeps limitations so I didn’t try any of those obstacles.

From there we went to Dripping Springs for lunch. We all sat around in the ruin to get out of the wind.

After lunch we went over the Hog Back the back way and down the tough trail from the top.

We stopped at the hill we had to be towed over last time. This time was easier since we were going down.

Dave made an attempt to go back up it but without success.

The next hill was a bit challenging, Junior had to make two attempts

but the rest of us made it over with no problem.

We made it home by around 4:00. The storm that we were expecting arrived around 6:00. It is raining now and is supposed to rain all day tomorrow so I guess I’ll finish reading the last book in The Hunger Games. Thanks Gaby.