I planned to put in at Indian Well State Park, but the town of Derby had other ideas. Derby is an old mill town parked in between the Naugatuck and Housatonic Rivers where the rivers converge. In the good old days, it was also a good spot to put a bridge over those rivers. So, that is how the roads are laid out, with a variety of arterials all aimed at Derby. If a road crew so much as stops to scrape chewing gum off of a sidewalk, everything comes to a grinding crawl.
The logical choice is to use the stuck-in-traffic- time to actually go someplace, and I end up at Pond Brook, where I can set out for a trip up to the cascades of the Shephaug. It is warm with a hazy sun and calm. I am surprised that no one else seems to be around on such a nice day.
On the way, I pass a fisherman in a kayak, a bassboat going the other way, and one runabout. I see a few Great Blue Herons and a mother Common Merganser with a few ducklings. Carp are the main show however. There is always a couple carp splashing about in the shallows. I see a few that are on the order of 2 feet long. Last week, someone caught a State Record 45 pounder in this body of water.
There is less water coming down the Shephaug than on my last trip and I can paddle right up to the base of the cascades (I think this is called, Roxbury Falls, but it's really not a waterfall). At the 2nd bend below the cascades, I hear a Bald Eagle whistling somewhere above me in the forest. When I pause to look for it, the Eagle quits calling, and I never see it.
I turn and head back out... a very peaceful paddle.
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