Hidden Industry

I haven't figured out this section of the river. For a few years the O'Sullivans Island launch wasn't available due to a massive amount of road construction, and some brown field issues with the island. That meant a 16 to 17 mile round trip to see this part of the river. The official boat ramp is still closed, but I can put in from the shore without any problem.

This is the top of the tidal section of the Housatonic, at least since 1871 when the dam just upstream was constructed. I put in and head downstream. It is noisy, it is always noisy. Several busy roads converge here, all trying to squeeze over the Housatonic and the Naugatuck, which meet at O'Sullivans Island. Three old mill towns, Shelton, Derby and Ansonia are clustered in the fray. As to the noise, once you are a 1/3 of mile downstream, the noise disappears, and the river becomes something else. There is a marina about an hour down, but few motorboats come into the river above it.

This part of the river is in a valley some 200 ft deep. It is a forest shoreline with few houses in sight at all, and those are mostly up at the top of the valley. A rail line on the east side creates a trick of non-nature. The rail right of way prevents any shoreline development. If one doesn't look to close, it seems fairly pristine. Paddling near shore I notice the man-made left-behinds. There are artifacts and features spanning a 100 or 150 years. In some places the shoreline is bedrock. Where it isn't, it might be rip-rap, or wooden cribbing. The wood cribbing I expect is rather old. Building it is a labor intensive job that would not happen if machinery was available to drive pilings or dump thousands of tons of rock. The rip-rap is ther to protect the rail line. There are also some wharf remnants and cut stone masonry structures. Once upon a time, barges and steamboats did come upriver to the mill towns. There are a few old docks - homeowner sized things, and a tin shack that is quite well hidden in the trees. 

I see five Great Blue Herons, a mother Wood Duck with four ducklings and a mother Merganser with six or seven ducklings.