Wind

The wind came up as predicted, but it won't mean anything except for some extra effort, as long as it does not get stronger.

I planned on a downriver trip from the East Haddam town beach/launch thingy. But, since I was last here, the town has added a "Residents Only" sign, so I start a mile and a quarter upriver at the state launch. It puts Selden out of reach on such a windy day, so I head up into Salmon Cove.

There is an Osprey on the first nest, and a Great Blue Heron perched in a tree a hundred yards farther in. 

The Dibble Creek dam

The big beaver lodges in Haddam Neck are now in full seclusion behind a wall of new cattails and I see no reason to bother them. Instead, I head into Dibble Creek, or more accurately, the bay that Dibble Creek flows into. I was last in here on April 9. There is a beaver dam that bisects the little bay. It's only a foot high, but it has a full crop of saplings and cattails rooted in it. The beaver had trimmed most of it during the winter, but today it is a full-on hedge. If one didn't know better, they would assume that this is shoreline. In time, this will probably become something resembling a hedgerow as roots and collected material reinforce the dam with each growing season. I can imagine someone 50 years from now thinking that this berm has some man-made origin. Of course, by then it is also possible that the shallow bay behind it will be a low soggy meadow. (The dam is visible on GoogleEarth, which shows that it was built 2016-2017)

The Moodus

I paddle up the cove and into the Moodus. The water is quite clear today and I scan the bottom as much as what is above the surface. I spot 2 Great Blue Herons. Some deadfalls blocked the river a few years ago, but these have all collapsed finally and once again it is an easy paddle right up to where I always had to start wading. On the way out I scan the bottom, finding an old ceramic electrical fitting, an old can of processed cheese spread, and....Bonus - an old rusty leg hold trap. The trap comes from the last sharp left bend right below Johnsonville. I note that the river is rocky on river-right, but deep layers of pre-peat marsh stuff on river-left. The river lies on the boundary between the rocky hillside and the marsh. There are also a few old tunnels in the mud that are just the right size to be former entrances to long gone beaver lodges.  The trap is a padded jaw variety, which are still legal in Connecticut. The large size of this one is legal only for taking beaver.

An old leg hold trap

Rather than pursue my usual route up to the Leesville Dam, which will entail a long headwind return, I head back to my put-in and continue downriver into the wind. I go as far as the East Haddam launch/beach thingy. This gives me a full hour of wind and wave paddling. Always good to keep the wallowing skills up to snuff.