Junk Yard Cove

 I put in from the Feral Cat Park on a rising and near record high tide and as I rounded the lines of two fishermen and headed out into the big river I was surprised at the level of the upstream current.  It would be a good day for a long trip upriver if not for a troublesome wind that I just did not trust to stay within reasonable levels.  But, the east shore was in the lee and I followed it closely.

 

I heard call of an Osprey from the usual place near the powerline crossing.  A little further on I spotted a second Osprey knowing it was a second Osprey as the call of the first was from behind.  Not long after the first Osprey overflew me and headed upriver.

With wind as it was, I decided to not go upstream farther than the first island.  A strong current was flowing into Junk Yard Cove and it occurred to me that I had never really explored that spot.  I rode a fast flow into the cove and started a clockwise circuit.  The cove is clearly man made and I suspect that it may have been a gravel or sand quarry at some time.   There is a narrow levee separating it from the big river and it is possible that at some time a flood breached the divide.  Although rimmed with industrial sites such as the town transfer station and a gravel and recycling operation, from the water the cove is pleasant enough with a long stand of paper birch on one side.  Birch trees aren't that common here preferring area a bit farther north.

 

Junk Yard Cove

I head back out into the river finding the current still coming upstream.  When I get back to my start point it just hasn't been long enough, so I cut across river and paddle downstream the narrow channel  along the shore rounding Pope's Flat, Long Island, Carting Island and Peacock Island, all low spartina islands that have been in their present shapes and position for a long time.  It's a grind into the wind as I near the bottom of the islands, but from there just an easy crossing of the river and a quick return on a dying current and a not dying wind.