The August 11th, 2014 Row. I forgot my camera on this row. I only remembered when I had rowed to the end of the drainage canal that I had my cell phone camera. It is so awkward for me to use while rowing that I only took a few pictures.
Gwragedd Annwn’s GPS track of the Row.
I left the Pitt Meadows Marina around 9:00am and rowed up the Alouette, up the North Alouette as far as I could get. I made a side trip exploring a drainage canal.
When I was about half way up the North Alouette (see Google Earth Picture below), I heard something breathing and snorting in the reeds on shore.
I really missed my camera now. I caught a glimpse of a beaver or river otter moving in the reeds, going into the water. The animal had a rounded tail not a flat one. I followed the snorting noise up a side channel, but only caught glimpses. I was pretty sure that it was an otter not a beaver.
This is as far up the river as I got.
The pump house at the end of the drainage canal. The canal is very shallow at this point, Gwragedd Annwn is constantly scraping bottom. There are many Indian Pond lilies, but I did not see any fish here. I am looking due West in this photo.
This is as far up the North Alouette as I could get. The river is to shallow and flowing too fast for me to row further up. I have noticed that the further up river you get, the clearer the water gets.
The view downriver. The North Alouette river is not very wide at the turnaround point. It is 12:15 and time to turn back. 3 hours and 15 minutes to row to here. This is the last picture I took.
I did some more side Channel exploring on the row down river. I arrived at the marina and was ready to drive Gwragedd Annwn and I home by 4:00pm.
As shown in the River Level chart, I had some of the lowest water levels on this Row:
Alouette River Levels at the gauge.
High River Levels mean good Rowing in the North Alouette.
Mike
Mike, the Urban Oarsman.