Lake Wapanocca - August 21, 2016
Submitted By Mary Finley
Debby Thomas led an impromptu trip Sunday, 8/23, to Lake Wapanocca. We met up at noon and put-on shortly after that and took-off around 4.. There were three of us that paddled, Debby, Sandy Stacks and Mary Finley. Lake Wapanocca is not far from Memphis and is a National Wildlife Refuge. The MS River is a bird migratory flyway and this lake, being so close, is where lots birds stop to eat and rest. Duck Weed was floating in the water on the trails leading into the lake as well as some in the cypress swamp. Bird and fish both love it. It floats right on top of the water and separates as you paddle through. It then closes back up, interesting. We saw lots of lilies, the pads were huge. We saw and heard egrets and lots of fish jumping
The cypress here looked different than the ones on the Wolf River and Ryan, the forestry guy at the WRC, said it's because the lake is self-contained and whereas, the Wolf is moving water. On the Wolf the cypress tree put out lots of cypress knees quite away from the tree itself. These, on Lake Wapanocca, I think, are prettier at the base and the knees are close to the tree trunk...interesting. The knees are the support root system for these trees. I am looking forward to going again when we'll see more birds.