Lake Zoar

Lake Zoar... the tourist type guides like to tell people that it's one of the best places in Connecticut to go canoeing.  It's not, but I make a couple trips on the river each year in the brief moments that it is good enough - during the shoulder seasons when the water is cold and/or when the weather is grim and the speedboaters are hiding somewhere on shore. Zoar is the second reservoir up on the Housatonic River.  Parts of it are scenic with forested hillsides, but it also has some patches of architectural barf - clusters of old two bedroom cabins on all too small lots, some of which have been torn down and replaced by three story houses.  From the water, that mile of shore looks like hell.  Anyway, the worst thing about Lake Zoar is the atrocious algae bloom during the summer heat.  With a dam holding water from flushing naturally, the Lake gets a gross and smelly layer of algae over much of it during the warmest months.

The mouth of the Glen

But, this is early May, and the water is cold and clear.  The air is still with a light and steady sprinkle, and the only ones on the lake are me and a few fishermen.  I head upriver following the east shoreline, which is a rocky, steep, and forested hillside.  After a half hour of paddling I reached the Pomperaug River, which I paddled up for about a mile.  There, the river comes down over a long tumble of cobbles.  Someday I'll do the wade upstream and see if the river gets better for paddling, but not today.  I spot a mother Merganser herding ten ducklings and a pair of Canada Geese with three goslings.  All of the young look like they have hatched sometime in the last week.

Newly hatched Common Mergansers

Coming out of the Pomperaug, I continued up, making a short side trip to explore the bottom of the Glen.  The Glen is a steep valley coming down from Newtown.  There are two old mills in the middle section, but the bottom of the Glen is steep fast water and I can't do anything but look at it.  

From there, upstream to the bottom of the Shephaug Dam and then start the return trip.  I spot a mature Bald Eagle near the Glen, push a Kingfisher for about a half mile, spot two Great Blue Herons and then an immature Bald Eagle just upstream of the Pomperaug.