Last week was pretty windy and I hiked instead of canoeing. Then, I managed to get bit by a Lyme tick, so a day of visiting the doctor and picking up my 3-week dose of antibiotics, and some more wind, kept me out of the canoe for awhile.
I headed out to a little group of islands in the Housatonic. The tide had been quite high but was more than an hour into ebbing, so the current under the highway and rail bridges was damn near whistling. I eddy hopped the bridge abutments upstream and then ferried across the hasty current. The islands, Long, Peacock, Carting, and Pope's Flat - on old maps a few of the islands are called "flats". They are all low salt marsh islands, covered mostly with spartina, especially now that the government has eradicated the invasive non-native phragmites that had taken hold. These islands are very rarely flooded, which is the condition where phragmites can out-compete spartina.
Anyway, this area was one of the first that I canoed in simply because it was right there. Today, there are a few Great Blue Herons and some Ducks - it's pretty quiet.
I run a figure-8 up and through the islands and then ride a stiff current back. It felt good to be in the canoe.
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