Onion River Exploration Project: Three Days of Mauthe (Day One)

Eileen's Blue Heron

Day 4 (7/17/14)
This was the first time in several years that we have actually had a chance to do a two night camping trip so we were pretty excited as we headed off to Mauthe Lake our favorite camping, kayaking and biking spot. We were pretty rusty at preparations since we had only gone out camping once last summer and that was just overnight. When we finally got to Mauthe we found out that they had no campsites for two nights in a row but we could stay the night and get on a waiting list for cancelations the next day. We had never had a problem like this at Mauthe during the week before but this was one of the first times this summer that there was little chance of rain in the forecast so everybody was rolling the dice and taking a chance at camping just like us. Since we had come this far we determined to spend the night and see what happened. The problem was that we would have to be back at registration at ten o’clock the next morning, or only stay one night, which would rule out any kayaking in the morning. We had invited our son, daughter in law and Lil Wade (our grandson) over Friday afternoon so we figured it was worth the hassle. We found our spot which we really liked. It was quite secluded but still close enough to all the important facilities as to be bikeable. As soon as we set up camp we were off in our kayaks across the lake to head up the Milwaukee River, one of our preferred areas to explore. Considering the fact that we couldn’t book two nights we were pleasantly surprised to find we had the lake and river pretty much to ourselves. In the past we have been able to get great photos of wildlife as we work our way quietly up river. We were not disappointed and about a quarter of the way up the navigable part we noticed a Blue Heron fishing on the edge of the river. It has been our experience in the past that the Blues are usually very skittish but this one seemed quite unconcerned as Eileen slowly worked her way toward it. I usually hold back and video and photograph her stalking the subject. Finally when Eileen got about thirty feet from him he took off and flew up river and circled back and landed behind us. We figured we would probably see him again on our way back down so continued on. We were surprised, that with the water as high as it was, it was still very weedy. It was a beautiful night for kayaking. The water was smooth as glass. In spite of the lack of breeze there were even very few mosquitoes. When we finally reached the end of the navigable part of the river and had to turn around we were saddened that we couldn’t go further. As we had expected the Heron was waiting when we got back. This time he wasn’t as tolerant however and although we got pretty close it wasn’t like the first time. After that we headed back to camp to build a fire and make some supper. We were off to a good start.