Paddling Garrison Lake in Port Orford and Checking Out the Lighthouse at Cape Blanco in Oregon

Tuesday February 10, 2015 Port Orford Oregon

Last night when I went outside after dark, I was greeted by a bunch of frogs singing away. Lucky for me they weren’t Bull frogs. I knew there was a little pond in front of me and that is where all the frogs were. I went out this morning to check the little pond out.

I didn’t see any of the frogs,  but I did see some salamanders under the water.

I was taking it easy today, taking my time getting it going as all I had to do was paddle around a lake in Port Orford.

Garrison Lake

There’s this lake in the middle of town called Garrison Lake which I’ve paddled before a couple years ago. I didn’t remember how to get to the launch areas, so I just took a road in town and turned here and there until I ran into one of them.

This is the spot I put my kayak in the water. There’s a boat ramp on another part of the lake, but I missed it and this worked out well.

My goal was to paddle all around the edges of this lake, so I headed out.

The lake had a lot of dead trees on the edges as I paddled along.

There wasn’t a lot of wild life on the lake  today. Likely because it’s winter and the wind and rain this last week likely sent most of the birds south.

I passed by these mergansers.

There were lots of scenic spots on the lake.

There were some crows along the lake edges making a lot of noise, crowing.

These two fishermen passed by me as I first headed out and I was wondering where they went? I caught up to them here. They seem to have a good spot as they were busy catching them. Not sure what all is in this lake, but I hear there are some trout in it.

There were some elusive kingfishers flying around the edges too. Sometimes I don’t try to get pictures of them as they mostly fly  just as the button gets pressed or just before.

But I did get this one that is at least decent.

More of my view as I paddled around the lake.

I saw this little duck, which may be a bufflehead?

I paddled along here. It looks like there will be a lot of green in the spring.

I passed by this big mushroom on a dead tree in the water. It’s abut a foot across. The white part underneath is alive and the brown part is dead from previous years growth.

I completed the circle around the lake around 2:00PM and put my boat back on the top of my van.

I decided a nap until three was a good idea, so that’s what I did.

I wanted to check out the launch area on the Sixes River which is down by what they call the Hugh’s House around here. It’s on the road that goes to the light house at Cape Blanco.

I headed that way and turned off at the Hugh’s House to look at the boat launch area. The water was high and muddy and no one is fishing it yet.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

From there I went up the steep road past the Hugh’s house and turned right on the road to Cape Blanco lighthouse.

I drove on down to the parking lot near the lighthouse. The wind was blowing a bit. I bet it was really blowing here yesterday when it was windy everyplace around here. There wasn’t another sole around the place, as I took this picture of the lighthouse.

And this was my view looking out to sea as the sun was going low in the sky.

I  headed back to the town’s library to do some internet stuff and then headed back to my camp spot just a bit below Humbug state park.

I’m not sure what I will do tomorrow. The rivers are still too high. I’ve been looking at some big tidal areas off the highway close by here that I might check out if the low tide is right? I’ll figure something out.

That’s it for another day.