Housatonic Two

I've never quite figured out this section of the river. It is a reservoir, but it is an old one, the dam holding it back being built in the 1870. It was primarily a diversion dam with canals running water to riverside mills, plus a rather small power house. Electrical generators were being invented at about the same time, so I imagine that direct water power was being used with generators being added as they became available. Had the dam been built a couple decades later, with electrical power more common, I can imagine that they would have built a much taller dam a couple miles upstream.

The reservoir is just short of 6 miles long and for most of the length, about 300 to 400 feet wide, and due to waterside development and the downstream dam, the water level can only be allowed a few feet of fluctuation. At the upper end is the 1917 Stevenson Dam, which was built for hydroelectric power. It has a substantial power house and lacks any riverside mill buildings.

I put in at the Eagle Scout access, about halfway up the reservoir. The water is high when I start out, but not unusually so. There is almost no current. And that is the hard part to figure ahead of time. This narrow reservoir runs a current quite often. It can be almost nothing, or it can turn a canoe trip into an arm breaker. (A beneficial side effect of this current is that this reservoir stays cleaner, in that it avoids the summer algae bloom yuck of the upstream Lake Zoar.) Part of the formula is how much rain we've had with the amount of power generation making up the balance. I head upriver into the best parts of this section. The current slowly increase as I progress.

Just above the shelf

The first challenge is "the shelf". Where the river makes a S-turn, there is a geologic shelf that runs bank to bank. None of this is exposed other than you can see a bit of a pitch to the river and an obvious increase in current. It takes me about 10 minutes to make it up over the shelf, the first  5 minutes is just hard paddling into the current to gain 50 yards, and the last 5 is some strategic hunting of slow water for the next 200 yards. Then, by ferrying to the river right side, I take advantage of the slow water downstream of the next bend.

The next challenge is a short class 1 rapid. When the water level is right, one can ascend this by hopping the eddies that from behind the many boulders. Today, the water is just a bit too high and the rapids is mostly washed out. I make about 75 yards by carefully studying the water and finding a few hard to see eddies. I can see the dam, but the next 200 yards is just not going to happen. I peel out into the current and make my way back.