What I am Here For

What I am here for. 

I go inland to the Mattebasset.  While ponds and reservoirs still have ice on them, the rivers have the assistance of a current to move and break up their ice.  In addition, the Connecticut River gauge is near 14 feet, about 10 feet over the typical level, and the big river dominates the Mattebasset.  The tributary backs up, flooding the bottom land forest and calming any current that might exist.

I set out downriver, resisting the temptation to cut through the flooded forest, at least until I pass the goat farm. I am doing what I am here for.  I think about that while weaving through the trees.  There are a good many Wood Ducks and Mallards, and they take wing as I move through the trees.

I find a lost PFD and collect it.  I find such things a couple times each year. This one is unusual in that it is a high end sea kayaking vest. Most lost PFD's are cheap models not worn by people who don't know better.  Anyway, this PFD has been in the water for most of a year, if not longer.

About a 1/2 mile down river, I find up upside down kayak about 20 feet out of the main river.  I paddle over and flip it, just to make sure.  It's a short and cheapish Wallyworld type, the favorite of people who paddle once a year.  It takes me off of my game, finding both a PFD and a kayak in the same area.  At first, the high-end PFD and low-end kayak don't seem to match, but then I consider that the PFD owner wasn't wearing the life vest, and that is a perfect match with people in cheap kayaks. I leave the kayak where I found it.

I head up the Coginchaug, a tributary to the tributary that I was in.  How far I can get up this river depends on the water level. I get through about half of the faster sections, but come up short of the RT 3 bridge by a couple hundred yards. A foot or two more on the gauge would do it. 

I head back.  I stop for a quick look at the old cabin near the power lines.  There are maple sap collection tubes running through the woods.  The cabin has 2x4 framing and might be 50 or 60 years old.  It has a stove pipe and might even have been used for cooking down maple sap. 

 Find recent beaver gnawings across from the Tepee Lodge site.

As I take out, a mature Bald Eagle descends, circling to a landing just down river a couple hundred feet.