Onion River Exploration Project: Cold Springs

Hope for the Future

Day 6 (7/19/14)
We didn’t get up as early as we had planned but we were still on the water by 7:00. There were some rather threatening clouds moving in behind us but there was no rain in the forecast and they seemed to be moving to the north of us so we went for it. What’s the worst that could happen? Again we aimed for the river. We had heard Cranes earlier and were hoping to get some pictures of them. Now all was quiet but we hoped if nothing else we would see the Blue Heron from Thursday night. Soon the clouds looked less threatening and a beautiful morning ensued. We saw lots of little birds and even a beaver or two but none of the big shore birds we had seen here before. On the way up river we saw an inlet that looked almost passable in the high water so we were determined to check it out on the way back down. In the past it hadn’t been much more than a break in the shoreline. We continued on enjoying the peaceful morning. The only sounds we could hear were nature and the roar of distant motorcycles. I wonder if you can go anywhere were you won’t hear manmade sounds? We finally turned around and headed back downriver. When we got to the inlet Eileen started in. I held back expecting that at any time she would start backing out. Instead of getting narrower however, it actually got wider so we continued to follow it. It had been awhile since we had found a new area to explore. The further back we got the clearer the water got. It finally ended in a pool. You could see were animals had made their way down to the edge to drink. As I was looking at the bottom of the pool which was a couple feet deep I could see the silt on the bottom boiling. At first I thought it might be the result of some burrowing organism but as I looked around I noticed that they were all over the bottom of the pool and ranged in size from an inch wide to probably six inches. In most cases they were surrounded by a darker sand area and looked somewhat like a putting green although some had more than one hole. We spent a great deal of time videotaping them and came to the conclusion we had happened on a cold spring pool. The water was so cold you could hardly keep your hand underwater to videotape it. It is discoveries like this that keep us kayaking. It was really hard to leave but we are certain we will come back again and have another look at it. After that we headed back to camp. As we got closer to the lake we were glad we had gotten up early because as we drifted along we met three canoes beating there way upstream. It was time for some more coffee and one last camp breakfast before packing up and making our way home.