Bon Secour River; Wednesday March 8, 2007
Jan Temler and Jerry Inman put in on the Bon Secour River at the Aquilar Seafood Plant on East River Road just at the end of CR-10. The river flows into the Bon Secour Bay and on to Mobile Bay. Here the river is wide and marked with navigational markers and middle channel buoys to guide the fishing boats up the river. As we paddled upstream we passed two more fisheries and additional commercial fishing boats. The lower portion of the river is interspersed with grassy islands and channels typical of a river delta. As we proceeded much of the shoreline was lined with summer and year round homes. One summer place was only a screened place about 16 x 16 built out over the river on stilts, and with a boat lift. Jan took a picture of me sitting a little downstream from the place. The river looked muddy or cloudy where we put in and was that way a mile upstream, we learned this was called red or green tide caused from algae. Less than a mile upstream from our launch point we were accompanied by dolphins. First Jan saw them next to his boat and when I turned to look they were already 40 yards downstream, but then a minute later two more appeared less than 10 yards away. Jan got his camera out to take some pictures but they never reappeared, so we went on our way. As we continued upstream the river became more clear and meandered more with numerous islands. It was hard to know which way to go or to find a main channel. We went the long way a couple of times, one of which was a dead end inlet just behind The Galleyrestaurant on CR-10. Further upstream the water became clearer, and there were more and more magnolia trees. We took a lot of pictures along the way. After 4½ miles the river became very narrow and as it was getting near three-o clock, we decided to turn back toward our launch point. Both, paddling up and downstream there was an abundance of pelicans and cormorants. At one point we were entertained by Ospreys demonstrating their fishing skills. Overall the birds we saw were mallard ducks, American coot, great egret, great blue heron, loon, brown pelican, and osprey. Distance 7 miles, (we were able to take some shortcuts on the way back) moving average: 2.4 mph, and time moving 2 hr. 46 min. This was to be the last paddle with my friend Jan as we have to ready ourselves to return to Michigan. We will be seeing him next year when we return in January 2008. Submitted by: Jerry Inman, Michigan Snowbird.
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