Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Tensaw River Inlet – LAST anchor day on the Inland Rivers!!

Day 194 … Tues, Oct 31, 2017 … 40.71 miles; 4:30 hours

Sunflower to Tensaw (aka Tensas) River Inlet, Alabama

Tensas Oct31 (9)Tensas Oct31 (11)The last day traveling only in the inland rivers; before we can go, the fog needs to clear enough to see. At least taking the dog to shore is easy. A second boat came in to anchor by us late yesterday. They too have a dog (actually 2 dogs) to take to shore.Tensas Oct31 (15)

We headed off after shore dooty, right behind the other boat … which quickly left us as they sped on down the river.

Some of the last scenes from the inland rivers …

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Surprised at all the tows we passed; 5 in all today. None as large as on the larger rivers, but still something to work around.

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We passed a boat ramp and potential landing spot for Cally. We hope to get her to shore, but reports of the river banks here from fellow Loopers say it is quite muddy.

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AND … the banks are too muddy; deep, sink to your calves and lose your shoes muddy! We tried once, but Cally sank in 6+” of mud when she jumped out of the dinghy. Another couple feet in and it was hard and dry. SO?? Off to the boat ramp, 1.6+ miles upriver from the boat and on the opposite shore we will go. Actually, all went well at the boat ramp. lots of grass area to walk Cally, no mud and only 15 mins round trip (not counting shore time) in the dinghy. Well worth the time to get here & not deal with all the mud; which takes more than 15 mins to clean up.

One trip we met 2 guys putting their boat in the water. It was 5:30pm and seemingly late to go fishing. Rip noticed a bucket of fish carcasses in the boat and asked what they were fishing for … they were going hunting! For feral hogs and coons. Hmm, glad we didn’t go to shore where ever they there going hunting.

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Anchored in the Tensaw River Inlet; out of the path of moving tows!!

Quiet spot at first …

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Then, 5 additional Loopers came in and anchored behind us. 1 took dogs to shore; all were quiet & left before us the next morning.

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Nice couple out fishing stopped by the boat to chat. They had been down to their hunting lodge and cooked dinner out over the firepit. We were invited to use their land to take Cally to run and play, but it still involved a muddy river bank to cross. We thanked them, but returned to the boat ramp for Cally.

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Nice evening and beautiful sunset tonight.

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Tomorrow the last of the rivers and back into salt water!!

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