Rabbit Slough Canoe

 I started out with my friend Mark with my canoe on the roof of my car, destination Beyers Lake. But the sky was looking pretty dark in that direction. So in Wasilla, I turned around and we decided to go to Jim Lake and Jim Creek instead. Once we got to Jim Lake, the wind was starting to blow. The lake is pretty big and not fun in high winds. So, we changed our destination once again. I figured Rabbit Slough, and Palmer Slough would be pretty sheltered and safe from wind, with no large bodies of water to cross. It started to rain on our way there. But it was just a light sprinkle, so we continued. It was still raining when we put into the creek, but soon stopped. It stayed calm too, even though it was a little chilly and quite cloudy. First we paddled downstream for about one hour. The current gets faster as we got closer to the inlet, so we turned back before the return trip got too challenging. Once back to the car, Mark got his camera out and we headed upstream to see how far we could get. The water is very high right now from the warm temperatures and recent rains, so the creek was quite high. I was hoping we could make our way all the way to the Wasilla Creek boardwalk, but the stream kept forking due to the high water. It started getting hard to find the best channel. The canoe is 17 feet long and we decided to turn around while we still had enough width to do it easily. I'll try again with my kayak, which is more maneuverable, and a lot shorter. We were out on the water for 2 1/2 hours. It was so peaceful and quiet, with just the sound of the water and the birds. I felt a little sad because this was my first time in the boat without Baby. I still brought her little life jacket along so a part of her could go with us. We saw a couple of eagles, and a couple of families of ducks with their little ducklings swimming behind them. It's a very wild place out there in Palmer Slough and Rabbit Slough. The last time I was there I was on skis with Baby pulling me almost to the Wasilla Boardwalk. There were dozens of moose that day. But we didn't see any moose today.