Contrast

It is a melancholy morning, cloudy and gray with humid and still air. I can't decide where to go, so I load up and drive east. It will come to me on the drive.

An idea makes the decision. Well, maybe not an idea, more of an impulse. Contrast. 

I put in on the Thames, right under the high bridge at the state launch. Nearby are parts for offshore windmills. I worked for Boeing for many years, so I am familiar with big wing things. But these, dwarf most things that I've ever worked on. Several hubs are near the road and farther down river is a single blade. They're all just improbably gigantic.

I put in and head upstream. First, I pass the Coast Guard Academy. Then, a shipyard with a couple of dry docks, and two ocean going tugs and small car ferry. Past that is the wooden ship graveyard, which is a two or three sunk and rotted boat hulls. It's hard to say what they originally were, but one of them clearly had a ship hull shape to it. I've always been surprised that they were left here.

Mamacoke Cove. Nautilus in the distance, archaeology site somewhere off to my left

After that, it is one part of the contrast, Mamacoke Island. If you hung out with any archaeologists, even for a short time, you'd recognize Mamacoke as a tailor made fishing and hunting camp site. The island is a forested dome of bedrock, about a 1000 ft across, connected to the mainland by a low tidal marsh that forms two shallow bays. Last year while doing some research, I found out about the Mamacoke Island rock shelter. Two skeltons with some stone tools and arrowheads were found there in 1927. Unfortunately, the finders were young boys who carried off most everything. Archaeologists only found out about the site in 1980, when one of the surviving boys, then in his 70's, donated what was left of his collection, including a skull, to a museum in Mystic. Imagine the marbles and baseball cards that those arrowheads purchased. Since the 1970's, a few archaeological sites have been located on the island, mostly at or near the shoreline. Human activity there goes back at least 4000 years.

Just across the river, a third of a mile distant, lies the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine. It is, perhaps a key artifact of the anthropocene, if you discount with plastic waste. Upstream of the Nautilus is the well guarded New London Submarine Base. Pre-contact stone points on the west side of the river, nuclear weapons on the east.

It is surprisingly still today, considering that it is a weekend. I continue paddling up along Mamacoke Island and then follow the shore up as far as Gale's Ferry. Against the light current, this takes about 2 hours. I've only seen a half a dozen power boats during that time. With no traffic, I make a pleasant crossing of the river and follow the east shore back down to the head of the sub base, where I cross back over. Then, once below Mamacoke Island, I cross over again in order to get a closer look at the Nautilus. From there, down to the high bridges and cross again to my put-in.

2 Eagles, 2 Osprey, 1 Great Egret, a few Great Blue Herons, 6 Mallards and a few cormorants.