Raft the Lower Klamath's Tree of Heaven

2008-08-12 2:02 pm

The wildlife you may see is amazing

by LD

Wow! What an amazing day we had rafting on the Lower Klamath River on Sunday morning. I have this theory that morning river trips always have the best chance for seeing wildlife. Sometimes this is not the case, but last Sunday, August 10th, my theory proved to be true.

On my raft were Lenny and Judi who were celebrating their 39th wedding anniversary. Also there was Mike and his daughter who were celebrating Angelina's 5th birthday. I told them that there could be a chance to see some wildlife on this trip, but I didn't promise them anything.

As we floated down the river we were all taking in the magnificent scenery of the Klamath River canyon. That was when the show began. The wildlife started with 3 deer standing in the river chewing on the grass growing on the bottom of the river. Then we saw at least 5 great blue herons on our journey. Next, we saw green herons, kingfishers, and osprey and watched the osprey searching for his next meal. Turtles lay on rocks basking in the sun and dragonflies landed on our hands so we had a chance to examine their beauty. It was more than we could have asked for.

I would have never imagined what we saw next. As we were lazily floating along, all of a sudden Judi cried out, "Look there's a bear!" My heart jumped! I didn't think there were bears on this section of the river. But obviously I was wrong! There was a black bear cub on the side of the river. Once he caught a glimpse of us in our big yellow raft he was off and running into the brush.

This was such an amazing trip for our group. We all joked that this should be called the Wildlife Trip. I told them that I had called ahead to make sure that the animals appeared on cue. You just never know what you will see when you're out there in the wilderness, but if you keep your eyes open you may get more than you had ever expected.

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