The Boatwreck Reach of the Connecticut

I put in on the Connecticut River at Cromwell. The section upriver from here is probably overlooked by most canoeists. The river is wide and I imagine that people might think it to be a bit featureless. However, most of the shoreline is forested or backed with swampland, and housing is rather sparse. Last time I was here, the wind was howling down river and the day was not much short of brutal. Today, it is already near 70F, with clear skies and calm air.

The river is about as low as I've seen it with the Hartford gauge bouncing somewhere around 2 feet. 4 Feet is a more normal level for this time of year. I get into the canoe with just a little ankle deep mud bogging.

20 minutes upriver, I spot two dark figures high in a riverside tree. I zoom in with my camera and find them to be a pair of mature Bald Eagles. If they weren't busy looking at something else, they might have seen me putting the canoe in the water, Eagle vision being many times better than human eyes. I pass directly under without disturbing them, but I do flush a couple of Kingfishers from the brush below.

I continue on until I can see the Rocky Hill Ferry, about 2 hours out. Then I cross over and follow the other side of the river back, spotting two more Bald Eagles at that point. 

There is some heavy rustling in the shoreline brush. At this time of year, with dry leaves on the ground, a squirrel makes as much noise as a running deer. You just have to look.  A Red Tail Hawk wrestles its way out of the brush and takes a close perch. Then a second Hawk, with a bit more effort, comes out of the brush. 

About halfway back, a beaver dashes across the nearby beach. I have never seen a beaver move that fast. Usually, I spot them just as they dive off a bank into the water. This one was sunning on the beach about 6 feet back fro the water. It sprints at amazing speed and makes a full-on Superman dive out into the river. With my eyes, I follow the bubble trail, air being squeezed from the fur, and then pull up to wait. More often than not, a beaver will surface to check out whatever it was running from. They have poor eyesight, so they will swim back and forth and try to pick up a scent. This one has had enough of me and doesn't show. I head over to check out the tracks. The tail drag is clear, but it is the final hind feet prints that are the best. They're not deep enough to bother casting (I have my plaster with me), but it is cool to see how deeply the beaver dug in its toes to make its final spring out into the water.

Beaver hind footprint

 

The wind has come up, a head wind at that. I put my head down and continue.