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Our Route Summary
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Entry and Exit
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What We SawAfter taking this trip we were amazed that this was not a well known and loved destination. There was the lake paddling which all of us enjoyed in an evening paddle to watch the beautiful afterglow and try to count the first few hundred stars. I also paddled up the dawn, paddling between Nails Creek Unit and Birch Unit and a little further. There was creek paddling which we did by paddling up the canal towards Flag Pond and then intersecting Nails Creek and paddling up it for about a mile. We paddled in a grassy portion of the lake, past lots of coots and a few ducks, mostly blue wing teal and mottled ducks, then up a mostly open canal through a marshy area and then into the creek which wound from a marsh to a swamp to higher ground. We went through a big log jam under the hiking trail bridge and then found a bigger jam about 50 yards further. So we retraced our route and picked up the canal and went on to the pond where we hiked to a little camp area to eat lunch in the shade. I enjoyed the red-tailed hawk and the warblers and chickadees that were there. We also found a toad just sitting in his burrow and watching us eat lunch. |
The next day three of the group hunted diligently and finally found Yegua Creek, shown in the photo at right. We found camping sites on it, which makes it a great place to camp out of a kayak. If you want to explore up Yegua Creek, Bob Scaldino, a great navigator, has given us an easy way: There are about six dead trees on the far northwest bank. You line up the last tree on the left with the fish cleaning station, which is just to the right of the boat ramp, and paddle towards that tree. When you get to the heavy plant growth line in the lake, you should see a wooden stake with red tape tied to the top. You should then see about a four foot wide path through the heavy plant growth. It snakes around to the right. Just keep following this narrow path through the plant growth (the line of dead trees should stay to your right) and it will lead you to the beginning of the creek. | ![]() |