On the morning of June 1 we paddled out on a glassy lake, aiming for the slow stream that drains out of the lake and begins the Green. This is a natural lake, typical of mountain valleys that eventually fill in with sediment and drain out through an exit stream. The country is lovely, with a few abandoned hay barns and cabins to give it a melancholy charm.

The scene just below where the river leaves the lower lake

Game is so abundant that I'll just mention it here once. For the first week we saw moose at least twice a day, deer were common, elk were sighted daily, and pronghorns were more abundant than deer. Muskrat and beaver were seen, although since they are mainly nocturnal their homes were far more common than the animals themselves. We did not see a bear. Birds were everywhere. The daily background music was red-winged black birds and meadowlarks. Ducks and dippers worked the stream, geese and goslings held the sand bars, eagles and ospreys sailed overhead. I even spotted a pair of Trumpeter Swans. Sand Hill Cranes were common all the way from the Warren Bridge to Green River. Bald and Golden eagles flourish on the abundant fish that can be seen in the clear water all along the trip. Ospreys stake out territories about a mile long; we saw many nests and mated pairs. Not even on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula have I seen more wildlife than we did from the Lakes to Green River.