Bluff City Canoe Club

Rivers and Events

Reelfoot Lake, TN (Hiking. Eagle Watching. Paddle)

Reelfoot/Isom Lake Trip
March 19, 2005

Next time we go canoeing I am going to not only check on whether it will rain or not and the air temperature, but also the wind velocity. For otherwise it was a perfect trip. Well, we did have one tump at the takeout. You know how easy that is to do. And we did NOT canoe on Reelfoot Lake but rather on the until now hard-to-find Lake Isom. According to John Bass, our cute, young and very informative ranger guide, the water level on the route we usually take at Reelfoot was low and there would have been a lot of dragging bottom, so we opted for an adventure and got to see something new and different. Lake Isom is a beautiful pristine lake, managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, complete with a cornfield next door just for the birds! It is protected to the extent that it is gated and off limits from November through February to allow the wildlife to do their thing uninterrupted by nosy canoeists and fishermen, until today!! From now until November it is open to the public. And because it is “just” a lake with a short slough to get out to it, one could float this lake without getting lost so a ranger is not really necessary even according to John. It is full of cypress and their knees and wood duck houses. In fact our ranger checked in one house and after Mom flew off he found 10 eggs. He picked up an egg and one BCCC member demurred, as I would have, that maybe the mother would now reject that egg. But our ranger assured us that ducks can’t smell and that is an old wives' tale. Now I know. We saw two cottonmouth snakes up pretty darn close, and one diamond-back water snake, white pelicans in flight, several wood ducks, pileated woodpeckers, a king fisher and one more rare duck but I forget the name. Also an endangered very pretty water plant, the feather foil (I think). Many flocks of birds took flight at the sight of our arrival and identifying them into the sunlight was difficult. According to John there are many species of ducks and other birds on this lake, both migrating and nesting. And one 6-foot wide active eagle’s nest in an enormous cottonwood tree which we saw and a few of us saw Mom or Dad who was incubating eggs. But back to the wind. The slough was nice and quiet with gorgeous reflections, a little reminiscent of the ghost section of the Wolf, but when we hit the open water on the lake it was tough going into that wind. We enjoyed it anyway, of course. As planned, afterward we took ourselves and our ranger out to dinner for some good ol' family style cat fish, hushpuppies, and homemade everything. All in all it was a very successful trip for the 9 members, one guest, and 2 local Methodist ministers and their two adult children who came along with us.

Patty McLaughlin

April 19 2003 Reelfoot Lake Cypress-Swamp-Nature Tour

Reelfoot Lake is about 100 miles north of Memphis. This will certainly be an easy day trip as we are scheduled for our guided tour from 1:00 until about 5:00 PM. We will meet at the Visitor's Center at 12:30 PM. Ranger Dave Haggard has been the Park Interpretive Specialist for many years and loves to show off "his" lake. He will take us back into places we would have a hard time getting back out of without him. This lake is known for its cypress trees, the largest of which we will see on the trip. Bring your cameras. If there are nesting eagles we will no doubt see them. We will see a lot of diverse flora and fauna and snakes. Some are poisonous and some aren't. Study up!! (Don't worry, Dave always sees them way before we do and will alert us.) Bring water and snacks if you like. Dave has 8 tandem canoes reserved for us at $20.00 per boat. Or bring your own canoe at no cost. Please let me know at least a few days ahead of the trip if you do or do not plan to bring your canoe so he can release them to others if we aren't going to use them. Following the trip we will take Dave to dinner at one of the great restaurants nearby. The trip is worth it just to have some of that good southern cooking. There are 2 campgrounds and several motels if you want to make a weekend of it. I have the info for them, just call or email me. Another fun thing to do at Reelfoot Lake is to take the pontoon boat ride around the lake with a guide; it was $7.00 a few years ago and has probably gone up. Contact P. McLaughlin. ?? Patty@bluffcitycanoeclub.org

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