Updated with muskrat video: Canoe trips celebrate 30 years of Old Woman Creek Preserve

It isn't every day you can say you started your day in a canoe and ended it in a blimp. If it is, then I want your job.

But that's just what my job was this past Thursday. I started it in a canoe at the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve in Huron and ended it in the Goodyear Blimp cruising the skies above Sandusky and Cedar Point. Not your average day for mid-August at the Sandusky Register. These days are usually filled with the Erie County Fair and high school fall sports picture days.

To see photos from the blimp trip, check out Friday's paper or sanduskyregister.com. To see photos from the canoe trip, just look at this page. (There also will be more on the sanduskyregister.com, including video of a leaf-carrying muskrat.)

If you haven't been to Old Woman Creek, make it a must-see for the summer that is almost over. There are trails, trees, beach and birds, and you can see all four with one of the remaining canoe and kayak tours on Thursdays through mid-October.

I took part in the morning trip this past Thursday. Our trip included several kayaks and canoes with 2-3 people. We left from a launch near the mouth of the estuary and rowed to Lake Erie.

I was paired in a canoe with Angie Roles, as she is an experienced canoer who was with a group of five from Oberlin. Somehow she was the odd woman out of the group of five even though her husband was part of the group. She said they didn't canoe well together, so she ended up with me, a semi-experienced canoer who didn't really help row much since I was taking photos throughout the trip. (And video of a leaf-carrying muskrat, did I mention that?)

I have to send a thank you to Angie for her guidance through the creek. We saw a couple of bald eagles, several king fishers, and a few green herons during the trip. I had never heard of a green heron before the trip.

Ohio Coastal Training Program Coordinator Heather Elmer and intern Lori Zatroch led the tour of the estuary with information about the estuary and its wildlife and wetlands vegetation.

The estuary went from being a state nature preserve in 1979 to a National Estuarine Research Reserve in 1980. The folks at the reserve are celebrating the past 30 years with an open house on Saturday, Sept. 4, which will include tours of the estuary, the research facility and hikes through the trails of the reserve.

This is a great event to attend during the three-day Labor Day Weekend.