Paddling in Reelfoot NWR - Grassy Island Unit

Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1941, comprises land surrounding about one-third of Reelfoot Lake, located within four miles of the Mississippi River in rural northwest Tennessee, to provide habitat for migratory birds, including dabbling ducks, diving ducks, and geese, as well as local waterfowl such as great blue heron, egrets, and moorhen.  The refuge is also home to nesting eagles, osprey and hawks, as well as numerous fish species.  The lake was naturally formed as a result of the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes -- considered the most significant to hit the continental United States in recorded history.  These earthquakes reportedly caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards when an area just south of the Reelfoot refuge, known as the Tiptonville Dome, was thrust violently upward into the path of the river.  Likewise, an area as much as 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, by some accounts, sank up to 50 feet, creating a sunken forest and forming the present-day Reelfoot Lake.

We wondered what the origin was of the name, "Reelfoot," and discovered that it was the result of a mistake.  Early maps of Tennessee from the late 1700's show the area around modern-day Reelfoot Lake as the "Redfoot River." Current thinking is that, due to sloppy reading or penmanship, mapmakers copying those maps erroneously mistook the “d” for “el.”

If you are interested in cultural history, folk hero Davy Crockett spent time hunting and trapping in the Reelfoot Lake area during the early 1830's.  Several local landmarks are named after him.  In recent years, Reelfoot Lake was a filming location for three movie productions: "Raintree County" (1957), "In the Heat of the Night" (1967), and "U.S. Marshals" (1998).

Be that as it may, Reelfoot Lake is a spectacularly unique environment -- a shallow lake encompassing an ancient cypress swamp, so that cypress trees flow across the lake and its basins as casually as birds might swim its waters. 

We started our paddling visit by venturing out to an observation deck on the shore of the lake to see what it was like:

 

 

The cypress trees dominated the area, providing an exotic, semi-tropical ambience.

 

 

 

We were excited by what we saw and rushed to the launch site to put our kayaks in the water:

 

 

The spot where we launched was at the junction of two dredged canals or ditches.  A number of these canals connect Reelfoot Lake and the basins which comprise the northern third of the lake that is within the Refuge -- Blue Basin and Buck Basin.   We started across one of the canals toward Blue Basin, and quickly ran into this pretty wisteria vine growing among the cypress and pines.  Kathy had to hug it:

 

Reaching Blue Basin, we looked across, and this cypress tree caught our eye --

-- before we spotted a sizeable number of duck blinds sitting around the lake reminding us of the homes we saw on Inle Lake when we visited our son Matt, his wife Weina and our grandson William in 2018:

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency conducts annual drawings for duck hunters to take chances on the right to use one of the Reelfoot Lake duck blinds during duck hunting season.  The blinds are all very primitive and are maintained by the State of Tennessee.  Their use is strictly regulated, but, even so, a "grey market" has arisen in the buying and selling of the resulting duck blind usage rights, disagreements can arise among duck hunters who compete to use the duck blinds.  In 2021, three hunters lost their lives over an ongoing squabble between occupants of two public blinds.

Luckily, we didn't know anything about this grisly side of Reelfoot Lake as we paddled through the gorgeous stands of cypress in the lake:

Some of the trees have grown into their own versions of bonsai:

We just couldn't get enough of them, and spent more than an hour paddling around:

In the process, we examined several of the blinds.  This one has become more modern abstract assemblage art than practical duck blind:

In the process of poking about Blue Basin, we began to realize that abundant wildlife was all around us, but was just shy and difficult to spot.  Once we realize that the lake was full of osprey, we were seeing them everywhere, including this one who flew away when we tried to photograph him:

His mate, however, was stuck on the nest, presumably because they were incubating an egg or two.  As we approached, she cried to her mate with some anxiety about our approach.  We decided to leave off before getting too close, because we really didn't want to disturb her too much:

Anhinga showed up on the lake too, even though the Refuge documentation doesn't advertise them.  Here was a family of two parents and their two youngsters, sunning and drying their wings as they perched on a log --

-- only to flee in a skittering line as we approached:

By this time, it was noon and we were getting hungry (not to mention getting fully roasted from the 90F-plus heat in full sun on the open lake), so we turned our kayaks back down the canal toward our launch spot.  Today we would have a launch lunch.

As we returned along the canal, we spotted this great blue heron and egret poking their heads up out of the waterlilies to check our passage with suspicion while looking for their own lunch:

After lunch, we spent our afternoon paddling lazily down one of the canals, because it was shady and would help cut the heat of the sun.  Paddling the canal gave us a chance to understand how the canals, lake, swamp and islands, including the built-up roads through the present-day Refuge, relate to each other.  The Refuge road is protected from water erosion by a series of large culverts that allow the swamp and canal water to flow under the road rather than undercutting it:

The Refuge's primary purpose is the protection of waterfowl, including migratory birds.  This does include protecting and providing sources of food, but, in general, does not involve creating artificial structures for nesting. Nevertheless, someone had erected a bird box along the canal.  Clearly, from the decrepit roof, it has seen better days, and it did not look like there were any inhabitants:

Our entire paddle was about 6.5 miles.  Of this, the canal was about 1.5 miles long, making for a 3 mile paddle out-and-back after lunch.  At the end of the canal, we found that it linked back to the lower end of Blue Basin.  We worked our way through the cypress trees and out to the basin:

As we emerged into the open basin, we happened upon another duck blind.  This one had been more elaborate than others we saw, but in its elaborateness it was also more vulnerable to the elements and has almost decayed to nothing.  Interestingly, the sign posted on it read:

This is an unregistered duck blind. No hunting is allowed at any time.  RNWR [Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge].

This was our first hint that fishing and duck hunting on Reelfoot Lake provokes great passion among the locals, which is borne out by the discussion we've given you above about the allocation of duck blind rights.  But, just in case you think that is a mild aberration, you need to understand that Reelfoot Lake only became a publicly managed fishery and hunting area because locals had protested its exclusive ownership by a logging company -- to the point that they formed "Night Rider" vigilante groups to wreak vengeance on the private owner -- even including kidnappings and murder -- to try to pressure the company to allow public hunting and fishing.

Such a peaceful place with such a troubled human history.

We hope to get one or two more paddles in this gorgeous Wildlife Refuge before we leave this area next week!