Farmington, from the Really Old Occupation Site

I haven't been on the Farmington in, maybe, two years.  It seems time to make a visit.

I set out from beneath the new bridge at Old Farms Road.  The bridge is two or three years old. Prior to construction, the archaeology survey discovered a 12,500 year old occupation site and recovered `15,000 artifacts.  The date of this site means that the inhabitants were there not long after the ice age glacier had receded from the local area.

I head upstream against a 2 to 1 current - that means my return will take half as long. I almost always paddle out-n-back routes and thinking of currents in a time ratio is far more useful than any other method. The water level is down, but not extremely so. There is plenty of room to maneuver around shallows. Right away I spot 20 Common Mergansers.  I would guess that one or two are adult females and the remainder are juveniles hatched this year. Juveniles and females look pretty much the same once the young are close to adult size.

This is a "tuber" river... most users plop a boat or inner tube in the water and float downstream. Fortunately, that is for the most part a weekend activity. I have the river to myself. In fact, I will see no one else on the water.

I surprise a Green Heron from less than a canoe length.  Instead of flying off, it tucks under a root ball at the river's edge, and avoids a photograph. I spot a second one farther up, but it stays out of camera range.

I flush a mature Bald Eagle.  It flies upriver and perches, until I near again.  Then, it flushes and flies upriver and out of sight. Add to that, a few Great Blue Herons and several Kingfishers, and some small Sandpipers.

Nearing the old dam, I have to wade a few times with either the current being too strong or the water being too shallow as it runs over gravel bars.  In the slack water to the side of the dam, I find some wild rice and a decent crop of wapato.  I never noticed this on previous trips.

Wapato - AKA Broadleaf Arrowhead

It took 2 hours to reach the dam.  I could portage and continue up, but the next section pretty much warrants a daytrip on its own.  So, I eddy hop across the fast water below the dam, and then head back down.

It is an easy and quick trip with nothing to add other than flushing a half dozen Wood Ducks along the way.  Oh, and I collect a yellow float toy that had gotten wrapped around a deadfall in the river.  I field dress it onsite, eviscerating it and removing a couple gallons of water before bringing it into the canoe. There is something satisfying about cutting into lost inflatables.