Pawcatuck, Again

I headed back to the Pawtucket in the morning, this time with, S, for her first introduction.  The weather was mostly cloudy, about 80 degrees, and with a light wind.

The Bradford put-in was full of weekend riffraff and at first glance, it looked like it might be a bit crowded on the water.  But, as we got ready, we figured out that half of the crowd was a group of Boy Scouts who wouldn't be on the water for about two hours and the others were dippers, who would be slow and wouldn't go far.  We got on the water not far behind the three dippers and powered past them within a 1/4 mile.  And with that, the river pretty much regained its wild remote feeling.

Immediately, S liked the river, which got better as we got farther in, of course.  We pushed one Great Blue Heron upriver for at least a mile before it hid out os sight and let us pass. They often do that, moving ahead in several short flights before circling back to their preferred feeding territory.

We portaged the broken dam at Burdickville, while a large group of large Asian men crashed cheap rental kayaks over the boulders of the broken dam.  It was a show.  We headed on up.

At the mouth of the Wood River, S opted for continuing up the Pawtucket.  We went about another mile before turning back.

About a half mile below the dam we met up with the large group of large men.  At that rate, they should be back to the take-out by about midnight.

After taking out, we checked out the put-in at Potter Hill Mill, which is 6 miles downstream.  And then, we discovered what is some of the best gelato we've ever eaten in at Pomplemo Gelato in Westerly.