Paddling the Moira River – 19 August 2020

On Wednesday, Clint and I decided to pack up our canoe and head to O’Brien’s Bridge.  This is a boat launch located off Highway 37 in Thurlow Ward, north of Belleville.  There were a few kayaks heading out, we were the only canoe at the launch.

The river we were going to paddle is the Moira River .  This river is about 98 kms long and begins at Jordan Lake, south of the settlement of Gunter.  It keeps traveling until it reaches the Bay of Quinte (where I live!)

A few photos below of the Moira River

We headed out and ended up being on the water 3 hours or a little more.  It’s a nice river to paddle and we like to stick to the shorelines.  Why?  Because……..we see lots of wildlife in the marshy areas.  So today, we spotted three herons in different areas, a Swan family with only one gosling, a dead little muskrat floating down the river (no photos), frogs, turtles and a very friendly Kingfisher bird.

We saw about a dozen female wood ducks sitting in an old tree, they were very shy.

All in all, a great paddle and the weather was perfect!