WiseAcre Gardens

Another day canoeing on the Grasse River.
This time it was the section between Morley and Bucks Bridge. The trip starts out in shallow water riffles and there is always the chance of getting hung up on submerged boulders and rock ledges. By keeping to the north side of the river you can avoid most of the snares. A bedrock shelf extends out from the north (right) side. During periods of low water it lies exposed, today it was mostly submerged. You can just make out some debris stranded on the shelf where the water lever was only a couple inches deep.

It only takes a few minutes to run shallows (about 3/4 mile) in a canoe. This section is probably my favorite fishing spot in the county. It’s a great spot to wade and fish on a hot summer day, smallmouth bass like to hang out in the numerous ‘holes’. These pockets can be waist deep and the current can sweep you off your feet if you stumble into one but it’s oh so refreshing when it’s unbearably hot and humid. By the time both the river and I run out of current I can just manage to walk up the hill to home.

Near the end of the shallows is a limestone outcrop on the south (right) side and the location of my primary objective of the day. It might only be a mile from home and I may be a bit carried away when it comes to rocks but I’m not dumb enough to carry one that far. I are smart so I used my canoe to collect this beauty I discovered on the river bank.

RockinCanoe

I’ve been collecting rocks and thinking about making some disappearing fountains. I’ll get into that another day.

After the shallow water riffles the river settles down. There’s 2 miles of flat water and a number of small islands before reaching sight of Bucks Bridge. I fished some on the way and caught a couple of smallmouth ‘keepers’ that I let go for another day. Hooking into bass over 15 inches is not an unusual experience in this section of river.

The river bank is high and hides a beaver pond / swamp on the south side. Where the swamp drains to the river is a shallow area filled with pickerelweed. I usually catch both pickerel and northern pike here but today I just drifted by. A Great Blue Heron was stalking the shallows and I didn’t want to disturb it. I wanted photos of big blue.

I was drifting slowly and quite a distance away but the heron noticed me right away.

A couple of strides with those long legs and it was nearly hidden in the pickerelweed.

My presence was too much to tolerate. With both of us in motion and the camera at full zoom I was surprised to capture the moment it took wing and get a half way decent photo.

The rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful. Another bass caught and released, a turtle diving for cover and a good slap by a beaver was all that interrupted the last part of the trip. (No I didn’t get slapped, beavers slap the water as a warning to others then dive out of sight)

The end in sight. Bucks Bridge

This is another section of shallow water riffles. Just before the bridge I got hung up and had to get my feet wet pulling the canoe to the takeout.

A Google map of the river section along County RT 14.

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Grasse River – Pyrites to Canton

The canoe launch at the bridge on County Road 21 (Pyrites – Hermon Rd) is usually more rock than river this late in the summer. For the first half mile or so the river is much too shallow to float your boat. Launching anything but a rubber duck here means wading in the shallow water and dragging your boat behind you over the rocks. But a heavy rain (over 3 inches) the other day raised the water level significantly making this section of river navigable to canoes and kayaks.

The current is swift but running the ‘rapids’ here is easy. The water depth was a good couple of feet. Standing waves marked the location of rocks just under the surface that you could easily get hung up on but were easily avoided. Once around the first bend you’ll see the discontinued gauging station (04265000), the last records from this station are from 1977. The river settled down somewhat here, the current was still swift but there were few if any submerged boulders to worry about so I started casting about. Before I entered the first flat water section I had caught a couple small bass. Around 7 inch, they were nothing to write home about.

Harrison Creek empties into the Grasse River just before the old bridge abutments where a road must have connected Barnes Rd with the Miner Street Rd long ago.

the canoe is pointing right at the creek entrance

A tree had recently fallen across the creek just above a beaver dam now topped by the high water.

I could see two barriers as soon as I started paddling up the creek.

The creek turned out to be the hot spot of the day. I pulled in 4 bass within minutes of each other in this short section of the creek. The first was a 15 incher, the next was about 13 followed by two 10 inchers. The 5 inch monster got away.

After the creek my luck changed. I caught plenty of bass but most were in the 7 inch range with the largest pushing 9 inches. As luck would have it the big fish never took the bait on the Grasse. But that’s no big deal, fishing is only one excuse I use to go canoeing. (as if I needed any)

By the time I hit this section I still had a good 5 miles left to go before I reached Canton. I’d pause long enough to cast into likely spots, maybe catch a little bass and move on. If I fished the whole length I would not have made it to the takeout before dark. So I paddled easy and took in the sights, the scarlet red of Cardinal Flowers highlighted the yellow blooms of Sneezeweed along the entire trip. Other wildflowers such as Joe Pye-weed and Swamp Milkweed had gone by but the white flowers of Turtleheads were still hanging in there. All was silent including an owl but it’s movement when it did a Linda Blair on me caught my attention. After a couple of quick photos I continued my paddle.

One panorama after another comes into view as you round the numerous bends in the river.

Sometimes a little rain must fall.

This turtle has more climbing skills than I imagined possible. That stump was almost straight up. How that turtle managed to climb up there is beyond me.

The mouth of the Little River marked the last leg of my trip to the boat launch on County Rt 27 just outside the Village of Canton. A few minutes more and my 5 hour canoe journey would be over. I’m not sure how much time I spent fishing, drifting, hiding under overhanging trees to avoid the couple downpours that passed by or just plain goofing off. Even a little Muskrat Love kept me dawdling on the river.

The little fur ball didn’t seem to mind my intrusion so I maneuvered closer for a more personal encounter.

This was my last distraction, I did spot some ripe Jack in the Pulpit berries on the bank of the Little River as I paddled by but I didn’t let them stop me. I was wet as the muskrat and twice as hungry and just wanted to get home to some dry clothes and a hot meal.

Use the Google map to follow the course of the trip from the bridge on the Grasse River to the takeout on the Little River

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This WMA encompasses 8,781 acres of open water surrounded by marsh, shrub, swamp, and upland forest.

Starting on Saturday, Aug. 14 through Sunday, Aug. 29 (2010) restricted wetland areas will be open to visitors. Generally these wetlands are off limits to the public in order to provide feeding and resting areas for migratory waterfowl. The DEC opens the area to the public for a brief period at this time of year because the nesting and brooding season is mainly over and the fall migration period has not yet begun.

Special areas included in the Upper and Lower Lakes Wildlife Management Area include:

Bird Conservation Area

BCAs are New York State owned lands and waters designated to safeguard and enhance bird populations and protect their habitat.

click map for a larger size

Bird species of interest include: Black tern (Endangered) Pied-billed grebe (Threatened) Least bittern (Threatened) Northern harrier (Threatened) Upland sandpiper (Threatened) Sedge wren (Threatened) American bittern (Special Concern) Osprey (Special Concern) Common loon (Special Concern) Cerulean warbler (Special Concern) Sharp-shinned hawk Bobolink Savannah sparrow Eastern meadowlark Marsh wren Virginia rail Sora American woodcock Common snipe Magnolia warbler Chestnut-sided warbler Brown thrasher Ring-necked duck Wood duck

Indian Creek Nature Center

Open year round there are a number of trails available for hiking and X-country skiing on this 300-acre tract of upland and marsh. There is a pavilion and picnic area and a 900-foot boardwalk provides wheelchair access to a observation deck. Another trail leads to a raised observation tower overlooking Lower Lake.

Boat Launch on the Grasse River

Suitable for small boats on trailers. From the launch site downstream 2 miles the water depths are 3 to 6 feet deep and a good spot to fish for Small Mouth Bass, Walleye, Northern Pike, Brown Bullhead and panfish. Muskies also lurk in this section of the river. After the flat-water stretch the river flows is a series of shallow riffles over bedrock and boulders. A canoe will have no problem finishing the remainder of the trip to Morley but it’s unwise for any motorized craft to attempt to make it. This 2 mile stretch, especially at Morley is a great place to wade and fish on a hot summer day.

Car Top Boat Launches

There are a number of canoe launches in the WMA (see map) but don’t go looking for a great canoeing adventure. What you see (on a map) isn’t exactly what you’ll find.

Let me explain.
Back in the days when commerce was centered on the rivers there used to be a natural ‘canal’ used to connect the Oswegatchie River by Rensselaer Falls to the Grasse River near the present day boat launch on Rt 68 about 3 miles downstream of Canton. I believe there isn’t much more than a foot of difference in the lay of the land. Today the water levels are managed to preserve stable habitat for water-fowl. While there may very well be water for the entire length of the area it proved impossible to find out by canoe. Dense vegetation blocks any attempt to pass from one lake to the next. While Lower Lake has easy access the other two lakes are nearly impossible to get to. Yep, no one mentions it but Middle Lake exists, at least on a map. I can’t confirm it though since I didn’t feel like hiking through the muck and water of emergent marsh to get there.

I figured to start at the canoe launch on the north side of the refuge. On the map it looked like a good access point at the lower tip of Upper Lake. I was hoping to find passage to the mysterious Middle Lake but all I found was a barricade of emergent plants.

The boardwalk was actually a floating dock and it didn’t get any better at the end. There was water alright, but a sea of green vegetation was just waiting to engulf anyone who dared enter.

Sagitteria latifolia All was not lost though. The dock offered a great platform to take a couple photos of Arrowhead flowers. I can now replace the old photos in my collection with something better.

It was a bit disturbing to see how much Frog-bit was growing in the marsh. Any open water besides the dock was overcrowded with this alien invader. The ‘pads’ look like a water lily’s but are tiny compared to the Fragrant Water Lily that also grows here. The leaves of the frog-bit are about the size of a nickel while the real lily pads I saw were over a foot across.

Frog-bit – Limnobium spongia

Anyhooo, this launch was a washout so I drove to the one at the upper end of the lake behind the ‘Headquarters’ building on RT 68.

It looked a lot more promising, I could actually see open water. BUT, the lake took a hard left that you can’t see in the photo and went a couple hundred feet before turning into another dead end. In the end I spent more time getting the canoe unloaded and back loaded than I did in it.

I didn’t go away sad. At least I captured a bee inside a Turtlehead flower.

I saved the sure thing for last. I knew there was plenty of open water on Lower Lake and it was easily accessible. Heading south (towards RT 11) on Front Street in Rensselaer Falls you can see the culverts that drain the wetlands to the Oswegatchie River. Right after that you’ll see the entrance to a parking area with an observation tower. I stopped there to get a photo of the map (best version available) then went to the next parking area down the road where putting in a canoe is easier.

Notice the Purple Loosestrife to the left. Scattered colonies of this invasive alien can be found throughout the area. The DEC has a control program in the WMA but when you consider that the seeds of this plant can stay viable longer than a human’s lifespan and they’ll germinate as soon as you disturb the soil, it’s going to be a never ending battle.

The waterfowl seemed to take exception to my presence. At no time did any let me get anywhere near them. I wasn’t planning on disturbing them but even the wide berth I attempted to put between us was too much for them.

Only the Seagulls tolerated me as I passed by.