It's official. The bald eagles have returned to the Nooksack!

Sunset on the Nooksack

I was out on the Nooksack yesterday evening teaching a kayaking lesson, and I am very excited to report that the bald eagles have returned to the Nooksack near Bellingham.

As we were gearing up at the riverside, I soon noticed a familiar smell - dead fish. Every fall as spawned out salmon begin to die and wash ashore, the rivers of Washington get a little stinky. To us the smell is gross, but to the animals of the river corridor, it signals that a feast has begun. The dead fish provide an easy source of nutrients that are essential to the river and forest ecosystem. Many animals come to the river in the fall to share in the feast, but by far the most famous are the bald eagles.

Seeing and smelling dead fish at the put if, I figured we had a good shot to see some eagles. Right off the bat, we saw a loan bird feasting on a freshly dead coho salmon. Traveling on the river allows you to get really close to the birds, and that first encounter alone would have made the evening for me and my guest. Lucky for us, that would not be the only eagle on the river that evening.  Further down river, we spooked an eagle off of his dinner only to have him perch on a branch directly above a small wave we planed on surfing.  The eagle watched us as we took turns surfing the wave. We soon noticed that there were a number of eagles in the trees around this spot. In the 20 or 30 minutes we spent playing at the wave, we saw at least 7 birds. They were very active, flying from tree to tree and fighting over the fish that we had spooked the first eagle off of.

The bald eagle watching season is just getting started, and the numbers are only going to increase over the next few months. To find out more about Adventure Cascades's eagle watching and scenic float trips, check out our website.

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you on the river soon,

Brian

"Do you ever get bored when you're not guiding whitewater?"

Mt. Baker from the Nooksack during a scenic float trip

Last Thursday as we were floating down the Nooksack River a friend asked, "Do you ever get bored when you're not guiding white water?" I knew immediately my answer was no. I love being on the water, but throughout the rest of the day her question stayed with me, and I had more time to reflect on the question.

It was not until I began working for Adventure Cascades that I ever was a scenic tour guide on the Nooksack and Skagit Rivers. I have worked on rivers across the country, and for years wanted to run the biggest lines on the biggest white water. I was an adrenaline junkie.

My mind drifted back to other rivers on the east coast, a waterfall run in California, and big water on the Sauk. I thought about how before running a Class V section in West Virginia, I regularly was unable to sleep the night before, and the first few times, I even threw up at the put in- try inspiring confidence in your guests after that one! I thought about how my knuckles would get white as I gripped my paddle, how sometimes I would plead with the river, "just let this rapid go well."

A Nooksack bald eagle

As I thought about those fun, yet scary moments, I was sitting on the outside tube of our raft with my feet kicked up, my back to the downstream flow. I was staring up at Mt Baker. I listened to the sound of the oars slipping through the water, and the laughter of my friends. I watched the sky colors change from blue, to gold and pink, and a fiery orange. Completely relaxed, with no sense of urgency. Some eagles swooped in for a closer view of the water, others stared at us with haughty pride from their perches in the trees.

I love big whitewater. At this time, in this moment, there is no where else I would rather be. An evening eagle float is the perfect adventure for me.

Relaxing on the Nooksack Float