To the Crux

The weather has decided to cooperate.  The heat dome was pushed aside by two days of heavy rain and wind - almost 5 inches during that time and a lot of downed trees in parts of the state.  

I put in at Indian Well.  It is overcast with a very light mist starting as I get into the canoe.  Puffs of fog rise out of the hillside forest, that 100 degree weather meeting the heavy rain meeting the under 70F temperature of today.  I have the entire river to myself - it is a well known fact of science that motorboats can not be started when there is any hint of precipitation in the air. The mist is so light that it does not wet my clothing.

I head upstream.  Not 10 minutes in, a large mature Bald Eagle comes in from upriver and flies a wide circle and heads back from where it came.  I pass a Great Blue Heron every 1/4 mile or so.  It is a very pleasant day and makes up for not sleeping well last night.

There is a noticeable current when I reach the Boy Scout launch.  This section of the river is an old reservoir held back by an 1870's dam, which is quite a bit lower than the dam that might have been built 50 years later.  The reservoir is 5 miles long and narrow, so water has to move through it steadily.  If it has been raining a lot, the flow has to increase.  I usually see this during winter months, but after several inches of recent rainfall, it is no surprise.

The current really picks up at the bottom of the S-turn - no surprise.  I hop eddies on river right until I get up to the "shelf".  I believe that the shelf is a patch of bedrock that spans the river, forming a shallow where the current accelerates. The water depth is uniform bank to bank, so there is no easy route over the shelf.  I have a hunch that it might be possible to wade the river at the shelf when the water is low and moving rather slow. Today, you would get knocked off your feet.

I come out of the highest eddy and head out into the current.  It's maximum effort paddling at a pace that I can maintain for fifteen minutes or so, the time it might take to get over the shelf.  I gauge my progress by eyeballing a shoreline stump.  A canoe length might take two minutes, the smooth water above the shelf is tantalizing.  I've been here before and I now that the crux is the upper edge of the shelf - the spot where the water is fastest.  I've been at it for ten minutes as I get to the top of the shelf. I can see the bottom.  I no longer watch the shoreline stump, but instead keep an eye on my progress by watching the river bottom.  And, it doesn't take a few seconds to see that I am no longer making any headway. A few more paddle strokes and I begin losing ground.  I turn and ride the current.

The mist has slowly increased since I started, though it never rose to the level of a sprinkle. 

I spot an Osprey butterfly swimming a large fish to shore.  I've seen Eagles do this with large dead fish.  The Osprey perches on the dead fish and watches me.  It will not eat or drag the fish farther until I am gone, so I leave.

I have a second Eagle sighting about a mile from my take-out.  I suspect that it is the same Eagle that I saw when I started out. 

Where - Housatonic2.