HI to Beaver Kayak Adventure

On Saturday a a group of us (Heather, Christy, Dorothy and I) decided to go out and explore the high water at Beaver Town. After scouting both sides of the bridge for a parking spot Christy Braswell came up with the idea of paddling from the Holiday Island point towards Leatherwood Creek and portaging where the old railroad trestle would have crossed from Table Rock Lake to Leatherwood Creek. We have thought of paddling up her before and climbing over - who would have thought that you could just carry your boat a few feet to the other side. 

It was all so surreal - we paddled both over and under the Golden Gate Bridge! From the bridge we paddled up the hiking trail - it was clear and out of the wind - did you ever imaging that you would be able to paddle behind Poker bluff? There were a couple of copperheads trying to get up out of the water on the bluffs.

We also explored up Butler Creek (hardly a "creek") and paddled nearly to 187. We passed the Blue Heron Rookery and saw lots of wildlife. Once we hit current in Butler Creek we turned back.

The water on the Beaver side was a beautiful blueish green - the Holiday Island side was kind of brown. There was not as much debris as I would have expected - there were spots like the trestle where it gathered and you could see some in the treetops where the water had receded. 

Back at the put in you can see that the old HI bridge is completely underwater - not at all accessible - except by Kayak!