Atomic Canal

I set out up the main river to check on the Atomic Canal, an old man made ditch built for the outflow of cooling water from a nuclear power plant that no longer exists. It's pretty much as a I remember it, a mile of water that has been more or less left to rewild itself except for a few signs warning you not to set foot on the bank. Spent fuel is in a nearby compound and most of the area is now a no admittance wildlife preserve... there are cameras. Anyway, the trip in and out counts two Great Blue Herons, five Osprey, a Wild Turkey and an immature Bald Eagle.

When I get back to Salmon Cove, I follow the west shore in staying close enough to see well back into the low cedar swamp that seperates the big river from the cove. And... there's an unexpected beaver dam! It seems an odd place for a dam. Usually, a dam is located on some flow of water that is held back to form a pond. I suspect that this is just one of a network of dams that define a shallow pond in the swamp. The water level is raised about a foot and half above the cove. The dam is about 8 canoe lengths long, say about a hundred feet. Since there is no creek entering the area behind the dam, the pond must depend on high water from tides and freshets to top up the level. While 18 inches doesn't sound like much for a pond, it surely shortens the distance that the beaver have to drag branches as well as letting more trees drop directly into water when the beaver fell them. I am impressed.

As I turn out and continue, I'm greeted with the sight of a mature Bald Eagle dethroning an adolescent from its perch. I spot the head of a third Eagle in the cattails below. The two matures whistle back and forth as if they are laughing it up about moving the younger bird. The younger adolescent bird has white tail feathers, but the head is still dark.

I continue up the cove and cut across into the Moodus River. Although short, the bottom of the Moodus is wildest area in the cove and river. I paddle up to the big deadfalls - a series of three large trees that blew down blocking the river bank to bank. It is a tough clamber to get over the log jam and just not worth it as there is only about quarter mile of paddling above until reaching an unpassable dam holding back the Johnsonville Millpond.

I head back down the cove with a tailwind.