Scent Mound School

We put in at the usual spot and headed down.  It was a fine warm day with lots of sun and a light cooling breeze, just weather that no one would dare complain about.  This was only my second time here in two years and M's first since then.

The top section is meandering with frequent sharp turns and M put the route to good use practicing her draw strokes.  The draw stroke and its cousin, the stationary draw are used by the bow paddler to pull the nose of the canoe around tight corners (or away from boulders and rocks in fast water).  With a good bow paddler the canoe speeds through tight bends without losing much speed.

We passed the newer beaver lodges, which were probably built sometime last year. Each lodge signaled us to expect at least a small dam not to far downstream.  I pointed out some beaver scent mounds...and explained to M what the purpose was.  Beaver are territorial and colonies (a lodge contains a colony) do not overlap.  If colonies are close to each other they mark their territory by building conical dirt mounds.  Then, they scent the mound with castoreum squirted from gland in their hind end.  It took awhile, but I finally caught the scent in the air and we pulled over a dug a sample from the top of a mound.  When the beaver are eating primarily tree bark, the scent is musky, sweet and quite pleasant.  This sample had a bit of a leathery smell, so the beaver are probably starting to transitition to  green plants such as lily pads.  When they are eating all green plants the scent starts to smell like garbage.  I know too much.

When we get to the old bridge, which is just fifty yards up from the only other bridge, weget out to explore the lower river conditions.  The log jam of  downed trees hasn't changed much although it looks like it might be opening up a bit.  A new beaver dam under the bridge forces a portage and neither of us feels the need to do that, and then do it again on the return.  So, we head back out.

We pass our put-in and explore a little upstream.  It's always been a bit log blocked in the past and it is this time as well.