Shephaug Cascades

I put in up in the cove that once was a brook where a railroad once ran.  The railroad is gone and the bed was submerged by the building of a dam in the 1950's.  I paddle out and across the main river, where the remains of a trestle (probably just the foundation) are down a good 50 feet or so.  It is a beautiful spring day with rather calm air and a good amount of sun.

I round the point and head up the Shephaug arm.  I don't believe that I've been here this early in the year.  I base that on things that I can see in the forest that I did not know were there.  There is a nice classic white house on the ridge just behind where the purple wisteria vines will be blooming later this summer.  The rock formations that I see mean that the ridge is not just glacial till.  I'm no geologist, but the rocks look like they have a volcanic origin.

I paddle north with little to comment on other than it is a nice paddle.  Eventually, I see some Buffleheads and pairs of scattered Common Mergansers.  There are quite a few of the later and it appears that they have paired up for nesting.

In the last mile of the outbound trip I find where the railroad bed climbs up out of the reservoir.  It's quite obvious with the foliage down.  The rail line ran up to Litchfield.  It was taken out around 1940.  It must have been a beautiful train trip.

Obvious railroad bed climbing to the right

In the last bend there is a great deal of beaver sign.  Quite a few trees are well gnawed and the chewings are fresh.  At first, I suspect that they are bank burrow beavers as there's not a lot of swamp land along the shore. 

 

I look for but don't find any scent mounds... the amount of chewing looks like more than one colony-worth of beaver.  But without the territorial scent mounds it might just be one active colony.  Back in a little inlet I find a typical conical lodge.

Lodge

I turn back at the cascades, as there is no further way up through the gorge that contains the rapids.

I pass the same birds on the way out.  I pass the same shorelines and trees.  But, I always come out different.