The Meanders

I don't think too many people canoe this stretch of the river, I imagine they never really consider it.  

I put in at Rocky Hill, just upstream of the ferry, which holds maybe 3 or 4 cars.  It is actually a barge with a tow boat that ties up to the side.  The ferry route has been in use since 1655.

Today, there is no perceptible current with the river level being lower than normal.  River level dictates the current in this section and it can really move during high water. The nearest gauge is at about 2-1/2 feet.  I've been here when the gauge was at 13 feet, and there was no doubt that a canoe trip at that level would be a fast one way trip. The sky is hazy with forest fire smoke.  This has been going on for 3 days. The fires are in Canada, a long way off.  The weather is low 80's and calm.

What draws me here is the big meanders.  It reminds me of some of the rivers in Minnesota that I grew up around.  Just downriver of the put-in are a set of forested hills - a clever disguise for the glacial moraine that is underneath.  The moraine was an ice age dam that backed up the water in the Connecticut River valley forming Glacial Lake Hitchcock with the drainage channel at that time a bit to the west.  I think that was roughly where the Mattebasset River runs. So, today's trip is on the bed of an ice age lake. The lake drained about 10,000 years ago.

Upriver of the put-in is a series of big meanders wandering through a wide flood plain.  The first meander takes just short of an hour to paddle before the river bends in the other direction. The flood plains within the meanders are excellent farmland as it gets flooded and recharged with new soil every year.  The west side of the river in this first meander also contains a large archaeological site.  This was a summer camp and the site of some early pre-contact farming, including corn.  I imagine that there would be more sites on both sides of the river as it is just too convenient for such utilization.

It is a quiet and peaceful trip up to Glastonbury. I see no other boats until I reach the Glastonbury Boathouse.  I explore a small man-made cove on the west side of the river, and take a look into creek that comes in on the east side.  Then, I head back.  

Most of the day, there has been a Kingfisher in sight.  I spot a half dozen Great Egrets all congregated on the east shore, and a mature Bald Eagle just downstream of them.  Otherwise, several Spotted Sandpipers and a few Woodpeckers.