Some Exploring

It is another day of heading there and ending up here.  I'd set out to Worden Pond in Rhode Island with a plan of heading up the Chipuxet River. My first time there, the rumors of the pond were confirmed. More or less round with only low swampy forest surrounding the pond, there was a 10 mph wind that looked more like 15 and a crumby chop had developed due to the shallow depth.  As it was early in the morning, I was more concerned about an increase in wind as the day went on.  So, I backtracked to a put-in on the Pawcatuck that I had passed on the way.

I put in at the Jay Cronen access and head upstream.  There is a 2:1 current and the river is mostly about 3 canoe lengths wide and bordered with bottom land forest and swamp.  There is some deadfall in the water, but nothing that requires getting out of the canoe.  It is quite a nice paddle.  About an hour up, I come to some class II fast water without a reasonable portage.  But, I find another channel on river-right that has a current, so I head up that. This goes a hundred yards and runs into some fast shallow water.  There is an abandoned mill on river-right.  I don't feel like wading or portaging this section without knowing that the effort will be worthwhile, but I get up and take a look at the mill.  (see notes below)

A lot of the machinery has been hauled outside - it's old stuff, built with a combination of cast iron and wood.  It's hard to say what the mill produced, but I find some long tapered rod parts that look just about right to hold spools.  So, I guess it to be either a textile or twine mill.  Fortunately, it is on private property and hasn't been "looted" by the local scrap sellers.  I climb back into the canoe and head back.  

 

Above Bradford

With the round trip being only 1-1/2 hours, I backtrack a bit more to another put-in that I spotted.

I set out from the Bradford access, also on the Pawtucket, but a few miles downstream of the Jay Cronen access.  This river turns out to be very nice as it runs through a Wildlife Management Area, so after about a 1/4 mile, there are no houses.  The terrain is low forest and swamp with the river about 75 feet wide.  It reminds me of what the Farmington River would be like, if the Farmington hadn't been developed within an inch of its life.  The current is minimal - maybe a 1/2 mile an hour at most.  About an hour and a quarter up, I leave the WMA and start seeing a few houses, then I come to a broken dam - an old mill sight.  There is an easy portage on river-left, but I decide to save that for another day when I can focus on this section of the river.  After a few minutes exploring the dam, I head back out.

Later notes: The mill is the Carolina Mill.  The first mill on this site was built in 1802.  The Carolina Mill was built in 1842  with the idea of creating a family friendly mill community, which didn't pan out. The mill wove cotton until the Civil War, when it converted to woolens and in the 1870's high quality cashmere. It went out of business in the early 1930's.  It is listed as a National Historic Place and is on private property with an event hosting business operating in the maintained buildings.  The class II white water is about 200 yards long and is aptly known as "the chute".  It is narrow with no room to recover or eddy out.  It looks like a great place to get sideways and destroy a canoe.  There is no portage.