Saturday, July 20, 2013

Pigeon River Otters

















Jessica and I were kayaking on the Pigeon River the other day when we had an incredibly fun experience with an Otter family!  We were exploring the small islands in the wide part of the river just downstream from the rapids below High Falls.  Jessica was paddling ahead of me and I was looking down a channel between two of the islands when I heard Jessica say in a loud whisper "There's otters right over there!"  I looked and sure enough, not more than 25 feet off the bow of her kayak, a family of otters was swimming around against the bank along the side of the river.  I slowly paddled over to get a closer look.  They didn't seem bothered by us at all, probably because they are used to boats in this section of the river (it is a popular area for local fishermen).  We watched them for a minute or two then realized that there was one otter that was a lot smaller than the others.  The little one was adorable as he/she bobbed up and down in the water, trying to get a better look at us.  We enjoyed their company for about another 10 minutes then they all swam off down one of the channels in between the islands.  We were glowing from the experience as we paddled back to the boat landing :-)

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