Late Osprey

Two days of wind and rain has left behind a sunny and calm autumn day that is about as fine as it could be.  I put in on still water and head upstream planning to go as far as I can without having to portage.

It is a straight forward and quick paddle with no waves or wind to correct for.  I spot a few Great Blue Herons and tucked under in the shade under the shoreline trees are often some Mallards or Wood Ducks.  Mostly, I just paddle and burn through thoughts, and with all of the busy work created by the political toads, there are a lot of thoughts to burn - far more than a 3 or 4 hour trip can handle.

At the first narrowing, where the width drops to about a hundred yards, I spot a swimming mammal.  Low and long in profile, it doesn't fit the usual suspects.  So, I speed up some in order to watch it as it exits the water.  It turns out to be a squirrel that has just completed a hundred yard swim all of the way across the river.

Squirrel

As I near the Rock Garden, I spot a late Osprey.  Most of them have migrated south, but I've gotten used to seeing singles that tough it out longer into winter.  I get a photo as it perches.  As I put the camera down it does a dive direct from the branch to the river, but it comes up empty.

I head up the left side taking advantage of a long eddy to make my way into the fast current.  From behind a boulder, I slide right across fast water and tuck into another eddy on the right side.  Then it is just a bit of weaving through boulders in disrupted current.  One last effort of about a canoe length puts me into easy water that leads 300 yards up to the dam.  The Rock Garden is a easy brief rapid that I sometimes bring people to just to teach them how to look at moving water and use the flow to their advantage.

After a short break I head back down.