We got off to an early morning glide in the canoe over at Mud Bay, down by Olympia. I should have known by the name that we would be in trouble, but off we went, with an outgoing tide, paddling in extremely overcast, gloomy weather.
I'm not too partial of these paddles on somber days. Just the sky will begrudgingly offer a little solace
, and the whole thing seems foreboding. We had very shallow water, with deep muck on the bottom, which can be dangerous if you capsize - you'll get rooted in the depths, and not be able to pull yourself out. We passed only a couple of dwellings - one was a beautiful abandoned brick home, with all the windows busted out. The other was this grouping of old fisherman shacks, up over the water at high tide.The only consolation were the gulls and buffel-heads, and a pair of eagles. Hundreds of migrating birds were settling on the mudflats.
