23April2010 - After 26 miles of travel I was forced ashore by a headwind yet did not set up for sleep. Knowing it is not unusual for wind speed to diminish in late day, I sat and penned much of what you are reading. At sunset I paddled north into calm conditions under a moonlit sky and before midnight I had added 4 more miles (30 total for the day). Aware of the prickley pear cacti that I would not be able to see, I opted to spread out my bedding in the canoe and tie up to a limb of a submerged cottonwood tree. Sometime during the night a SW breeze began and my sheltered mooring was rocking, bumping against the tree and taking in an occasional drop of splash, so I got up, paddled only 100 yards or so into a sheltered bay and settled down again ... this time barely on the shore beside the beached canoe.
This morning I got underway and paddled about 15 miles before it became obvious that I was onto the unmoving water of a lake. This point is after the river had turned directly south in the UL Bend section on the lake's western extremity. The next ten miles involved paddling through what can be reasonably described as a willow jungle. Well grounded at first, in a fairly short distance the tree bases were inundated and that inundation became noticeably deeper as I proceeded more onto the lake. None of these willlows were dieing yet ... indeed they were leafing out very well and the bright green was beautiful. As beautiful as it was it was disconcerting to paddle through because one does not know where it will end and whether one will be able to get to a shore to make camp. That easewd on he left bank 23 miles into the day but not on the right. Somewhere on the right was the Crooked Creek Recfreation Area and possibly some weekenders with whom I could socialize, but it was not approachable as I had no idea how to make my way through the willow jungle.
A stiff NW wind pushed me along for most of the day, even wrapping around the UL Bend and pushing me north for a mile or so. I reached a point where that ended of course and worked my way farther north with great difficulty. The headwind featured occasional whitecaps and encouraged me to pull out and wait as described above. By the end of today's 30 miles I had paddled past the willow jungle, though small areas of inundated willows would be noted all the way to the dam.
Today I saw Beavers, Frogs, Ducks, Geese and Pelicans. It is 90 miles to the dam. With the wind having shifted to a SW wind I am optimistic about tomorrow.