Overdue

 I was sorting a few thousand canoe photos (in reality more than 10,000, most of which are junk because I often use the camera as a diary or binoculars) and I discovered that I hadn't been in the middle Scantic for four years.  It deserved a visit and my memory deserved a refresh.

I put in on from the bridge where Cemetery Road comes in.  It's a steep slippery 6ft high bank to access the water but with a grassy slope, I just slide the canoe into the water.  Then I head upriver. 

The Scantic is 38 miles long and never much more than 3 or 4 canoe lengths wide. It cuts through New England forest, touches a few towns and farms, but it is mostly well hidden in the trees.  In fact, it is quite difficult to locate looking at satellite images.  I don't know what the river looks like downstream of here except that where it dumps into the Connecticut River it is fairly choked with very large downed trees that are problematic to get past except when the big river is running quite high.

Right off, I have two short sections of shallow fast water to get up.  This is rock paddle water and my good hand carved paddle stays in the bottom of the canoe. A "rock paddle" is a reinforced thing, pretty much a good store bought paddle, but a bit of a club compared to my own.  Anyway, with a bit of extra exertion I 'm into the calmer water above.  Now starts a long meandering route in a 2:1 current with occasional extra maneuvering to get past dead falls.  This small forest river has a lot of large woody debris, but old saw cuts show that once in awhile someone comes in here with a chainsaw.  I stop once and pull out my bow saw to trim the top of a deadfall and open up a gap.  Otherwise, the river is as open as I remembered it to be.

I catch a good sized beaver sliding into the water.  I wish I'd seen it before it moved.  Then, a Great Blue Heron drops out of the tree tops and flies off.  Any exposed mud or sand along the shoreline is well tracked by animals.  It might be one of the best places I've seen for plaster casting tracks, but I don't have plaster with me.

After a short hour of upstream travel I come to more fast water.  This is more sustained with only short sections of pooling.  But, the water is shallow and the river gravel or cobble bottomed, so it is easy wading in less than knee deep water.

Then, the water slows down again but after a few hundred yards I come to a log crawl that I remember.  I keep going and get to the bigger log crawl that I also remember.  Both trees are bigger than the typical chainsaw, which also means they are big enough to stand on. But, this is just a few minutes short of when I planned to turn back, so I skip the lumberjack fun and head down.  The fast sections are easy, just lining the canoe up with the most open water and letting it go.  I pass the same beaver again.  It was basking again and once again I did not see it until it slid into the water.

I take out by climbing the bank and hauling the canoe up with the painter.  I am pleased to see that the river had not become choked with deadfalls.