Up to Wooster Island

My last canoe trip was one of continuous beaver dam crossings - twenty two crossings in just six and a half miles. I barely had time to paddle before having to step out and pull the canoe over a dam. I picked today's route accordingly.

I put in under the highway bridge on the far side of town. The tide was coming in and had about 2 hours to go. I would have both the light wind and the tide at my back as I headed upriver. I cut across to the narrow channel between Peacock and Carting Islands, spotting six Great Egrets and two Great Blue Herons on the way. I wondered if it would be a Great Bird day. In the narrow channel, I flushed a few Mallards, and one Green Heron, which would fly ahead a hundred yards at a time, until I reached the top of the islands. 

I recrossed the river just because I prefer the quieter channel east of Fowler Island.

I saw few birds until I got up to the nameless island above the 15 bridge. There were good numbers of Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and one Snowy Egret, for good measure. Between here and the top of Wooster Island, a distance of two miles, I spotted about two dozen each of the Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons. Ripples in the water told why they were here. There were large schools of small fish, perfect food for the waders. And they were waiting... for the tide to go out. The high water was up against the bank, but as it dropped, the fish would be easy prey from the shore.

I took a turn around Wooster Island and headed back, following the opposite shore from my trip up. It made for a four hour trip without having to get out of the canoe.

Beaver Dam-o-rama

Driving over the Route 22 bridge, I glance over to check the river level. This is the only view of the river until I put in. It looks low.

The East Branch of the Croton River

At the Patterson put-in, the river does look low, but not obscenely so. A hundred yards down, I pass through a broken beaver dam, and then step over four more before getting a quarter mile in. These are all low minimal dams - 3 to 4 inches high, but they are structural and I have to get out and stand on the dams to drag the canoe over. The river is narrow, and sometimes the open channel is just barely wider than the canoe. I laugh to myself that if I had brought someone here for the first time, they would look at me and ask, "What river?" Anyway, it might be narrow, but the water is more than deep enough for paddling. 

An ominously open patch of water

Just as the river bends away from Pine Island, I cross my 7th beaver dam. It is obvious to me that the 13 mile round trip down to Green Chimneys and back is not going to happen today. This is going to be a slow picking away at the problem trip and making it down to the Route 22 bridge, the halfway point, will be enough. I'm fairly sure that these low dams will disappear when the river level comes back up. To me, they look more like a water conservation project to hold back some water until it we get some rain.

Dam #8 seen from below

The river widens some. This is an ominous sign. I pass a beaver lodge, then flush forty Wood Ducks. That is a good sign. The swamp seems to be a major stopover point for migrating Woodies. One fall, I spotted over 600 (six hundred) in the 3 miles below the  22 bridge. In fact, today the only Ducks that I will see are Wood Ducks. Of course, dam #8 appears at the bottom of this wide spot in the river. It is about a foot and a half high. I flush a pair of Ring Neck Pheasants. It has been years since I've seen them. They were introduced in the 1880's as a game bird.

With all the dams, all the stepping out and problem solving, I have to remind myself to look around and enjoy this spectacular place.

Dam #9 seen from below

A bit father on is dam #9, also about a foot and a half high. In this next stretch, I pass a well built beaver lodge with excellent and recent mudwork on the exterior. Usually, you don't see that amount of applied mud until closer to winter.  A lodge usually indicates a coming dam. Dam #10 is very well built, about two feet high, and sealed with a thick layer of mud on the upstream side. It is obvious that this dam and the lodge were built by the same colony - "mud" is their middle name.

Dam #11 from below

I sit at #10 for a few minutes. It is about a quarter mile to the 22 bridge, which is today's turn-around point. I decide to keep going, and this dam turns out to be an easy crossing due to some wood and firm ground on the left end. 

Dam #11 shows up, hiding just around the next bend. Then after a bit a of maze work through some low water and drift wood, I come to Dam #12. 12 is an old dam that fell out of use for several years and the beaver have come in and refurbished it. It still isn't holding back any water. I suspect there is an end run that the beaver haven't located, yet.

Dam #12 is close enough, with the 22 bridge not much more than a hundred yards away, hidden in the trees, but there just the same. I turn and start retracing my route. On the way back, I spot a Great Blue Heron and a Pileated Woodpecker, and a very noisy Hawk.