We did the Cooley family landing to Berry's pond a few days ago. I'm happy to say that we did not have to get out of our boats the whole way. It is still a bit mind boggling just how much stuff there is in the river. It has grown up a bit since my last visit with very few places along the way where the riverbank does not look like jungle. Took almost exactly 5 hrs on the water with only one stop along the way. I saw an engine like the ones they use on the dragon tail type rigs. It looked almost like new and certainly salvageable and if I had the room I would have brought it home. When we got to the pond there was a guy just heading up river with this same sort of rig. I told him about it and he said he had a friend that had sunk a boat up there recently. It must have been big water when that happened as it was sitting on a sand bar in plain view when I saw it.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Clifton Beach
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Tamed by the Tyger
The river was fairly low and I felt it would be a fairly sedate trip. We were only about 15 minutes into it when we found ourselves in the river. I think it mostly a result of inexperience more than anything. We were both sitting on cushions which put you up even higher than you would normally be. In hindsight it would probably be smarter to sit on the bottom of the canoe and used kayak paddles. I think a normal paddling position in a canoe would be on your knees but I don't think my keens could take that very long.
We were going through an opening in some logs in the river it was a bit narrow and the water was moving faster through there plus we had made a few strokes to help shoot through the gap. We were almost through when we hit a submerged log that upset the canoe to the point I thought we were going over so I bailed out hoping my partner could stay in the boat. It was not to be and we both ended up in the river and the canoe full of water. On top of that we had no bailing bucket either... but the river is pretty shallow most places and we pulled it over to the bank and tipped it over to get as much water out as possible and finished it off with a kayak paddle which had a spoon type blade which worked pretty well. We had the chainsaw along as well and it was waterlogged so we would not be cutting any logs.
All in all though it was a good trip and educational as well. While there were no impassable blockages there were multiple places where you kind of had to decide where you were gonna go through and there were quite a few places where there was significant obstructions. One stretch in particular where you just clear one obstruction and there is another is right after it.
We are looking forward to doing it again. I would wind up by saying one of the pluses of this passage is the put in and the take out are less than 10 minutes apart by car and that the put in a take out are both very nice.
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Log Jam Freedom Convoy Victory
Wes reports that the South Tyger River passage from the Beech Springs entry down to Berry's Pond is now clear. He and I cleared a few log jams a couple of weeks ago and it appears someone else has helped as well. He made the passage yesterday and says that it is all clear. We had partially cleared a few spots that we were hoping the next high water would help break up even more.
The long range forecast for next weekend is 80 plus Saturday and Sunday... seems like a good time for a Log Jam Freedom Convoy Victory passage 😊
Here is a link to the River Height Gage thats on the bridge at Danzler Rd in Duncan When this gage is showing 5.5 ft or so or less... that is relatively low.
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Log Jam Freedom Convoy Episode 1
Monday, April 4, 2022
Blue Heron Rookery
I had no idea these birds nested in trees. I spent a lot of time on Lake Greenwood when I was young. Saw a lot of these birds flying but I don't recall ever seeing one in the landing mode directly overhead. They have a huge wingspan.
On the River
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Log Jam Freedom Convoy
Log Jam Busting for fun.... A great opportunity to vent your covid frustrations on some unsuspecting logs. These logs have had it way to easy and are impeding the natural flow of the Log Jam Freedom Convoy from floating down the South Tyger River from the Cooley Family access point in Duncan... all the way to Berry's Pond and the Tygerberry Landing.
This is an aerial shot of the TygerBerry Landing on Berry's Pond
