Whack! Whack, whack!
Frankly, I always thought this would be a boring little paddle — putting in the Sauble River near the mouth of Lake Huron and paddling up to the falls. It hardly seemed worth the effort. Well my lovely Sauble River, I sorely underestimated you.
The north bank of the Sauble River
Stellar sunshine for a gorgeous October paddle.
By road it is a short distance and that is what fools you. But after a good report from friends, we made a quick decision on a stellar fall day to load the kayaks on the van roof and drive the tiny distance to put into the local river.
The underwater terrain was thick with water plants in spots, barren granite shelves in others. I thought that if I watched the clear, still water closely enough I might catch site of a salmon on their upstream trek. No luck.
Splash! At first, it was just the odd sound and maybe some ripples, just enough to catch our interest. Then we rounded the corner to the fishing hole. There a big guy was flying through the air — a twirling three footer! Whack! Whack! Whack! Even the Russian judge awarded a 9.9 and stood to applaud. We stayed firmly planted in our kayaks waiting for the encore. We were not disappointed!
Waiting for the salmon to jump
At the falls weo nosed our kayak bows up onto the rocks in the falls lower reaches. Hanging out in a kayak at the bottom of a waterfall on a glorious fall day when salmon are jumping…well my quiet little Sauble River I’ll be back for more next year.
Taking quick-action shots, like a salmon jumping is impossible from a bobbing Kayak, at least for an amatuer like me. However, my Bob went back to the falls by land and caught this shot of the salmon working hard to climb a ledge. I’m don’t have the software needed to translate the images crisply to YouTube. My apologies but I thought you might still like a peak.
biglakelife 