This morning my dad and I canoed from the Kelley Point canoe portage down to the outlet of Bybee lake. I’d told my dad about the slough this summer and he brought down the canoe in case the weather cooperated. As luck would have it, this morning was beautiful and we got home just as the weather turned for the worse.
At the put-in, we ran in to a kayaker with a cool hand-made mahogany boat and after grilling him about that, we asked what route he recommended. It was at this point I realized I didn’t bring a map. Ironically, given my affinity for maps, my map-encouraging childhood, my map/compass training as an eagle scout, I rarely seem to remember to bring maps places. I look ahead of time, but either assume I’ll remember, or forget completely. So I drew a quick line map on the back of my hand from his nautical charts.
We started by nosing out into the Willamette to see the confluence of it and the Columbia, but didn’t venture too far because Barley really wanted to swim, and we didn’t want to spill. We turned back up the slough for roughly 2 miles to where a small tributary went between the Smith and Bybee lakes. We followed the channel up to and through a gauging station and into the inlet/outlet of Bybee lake and turned around when the water was to shallow, then headed back towards the car.
Despite what the map suggests is an overly developed area, the refuge and water meant some good birding. We saw a great horned owl, which was being accosted by some crows, several heron and egrets, a couple red tailed hawks, some mallards and mergansers and what I think was a yellow rumped warbler.
Barley was kind of bored by the trip since he didn’t get to swim, but the water in the slough isn’t….well… safe. But that doesn’t stop people from fishing in it. All in all, a great way to spend a November weekend.