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| Lower Salt River - Waterusers to PhonD, AZ | |
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| | Lower Salt River - Waterusers to PhonD, AZ | | | |
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Lower Salt River - Waterusers to PhonD, AZ
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| Kayak | 8.80 Miles |
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| | Kayak | 8.80 Miles | 2 Hrs 37 Mns | | 3.36 mph |
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| no partners | | Cooler weather is (hopefully) on the way, school is in session, and the popularity of the river seems to be dwindling. Arrived to the take out area before sunrise with just a handful of other vehicles there. In a change from the usual modus operandai for morning paddles, we inflated in the lot and piled the gear into a truck to ferry it all up to the put in point.
By the time we arrived at the put in point, the sun had risen, though it still had yet to clear the surrounding terrain before beating down on us. The releases continue to hold steady at about 750cfs - the upper section of the salt continue to be tranquil and easy to navigate with patches of eelgrass that can make things a bit slower if you drift into them. While the day started out with hardly any clouds in the sky, patches of high clouds quickly appeared and continued to build over the course of the day.
With the moderate temperatures and modest cloud cover, it seems the wildlife was more scarce right on the water. While we still saw the usual critters including herons, egrets, ducks, turkey vultures, grackles, red winged blackbirds, and wild horses, there definitely seemed to be fewer of them out. Caught sight of either an otter or a beaver swimming near the mud cliffs, but before I got close enough to really get a better sight of its head, it dove and didn't resurface while I was in the area to allow for a more positive identification. As the seasons change, there may be some new birds in the area...I think I saw several black phoebes, but I don't remember catching sight of them on my previous floats.
Other people: apparently, the 2nd annual Salt River Championship was happening while we were on the river with maybe a dozen or more participants. There were some other paddleboarders and kayakers out on the water, along with a few people fishing along the shoreline in the regular spots - though given that it was the weekend, there really weren't that many others out. Also saw someone out flying tricks in a biplane - that was pretty neat to watch, though they were pretty far away. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Noticed some small yellow flowers on some dark green low lying plants right at the waters edge near the take out point - I uncharacteristically failed to grab a photo - mostly because there was none at the actual take-out point and with the congestion there, I was more focused on getting my gear out of the way. |
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Happier when hiking....I may not move fast (and I'm often distracted by wildflowers), but I'll get there eventually  |
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