Duckin' the Wind

Mattebasset River

I head upstream against a stiffer than normal current. Usually the big river dictates the flow in this tributary, and the big river is at a normal level.  The extra flow is likely coming from upstream marshes that have been thawing this week.  My guess right off, is that I'll get no further than the old railroad trestle.

It is a nice sunny day with temperatures in the 40's.  The prediction is for gusty weather, and as I set out, the wind arrives.  That is why I came here today. Much of this river is down in valley and surrounded by wooded hillsides or bottom land forests. The wind is unscheduled, coming in building gusts that come from one direction, dissipate, and then build up from a different direction.  

A couple bends up, a mammal makes a quick swim across the river. It's a hundred yards out, and by the way it swims, it is most likely a muskrat.  

The Old Trestle

I get up to just below the trestle, as I thought. The current here requires lining or portaging the canoe up to the trestle, then portaging under the trestle. Then, it is just a few hundred yards to another spot that must be waded.  Unless the water is high and backed up due to the big river, going upstream from here is an exercise in canoe torture.

I return to my start point in exactly half the time I spent heading out. I continue on down.

I meet outrigger man near the first lodge. He was already out when I put in and looking at him, he didn't have fun coming back against the wind (below this point is a wide open marsh).  The wind is stronger here and I pull over for a few minutes to ponder.  I sit and observe for about five minutes.  The wind is doing what it was doing when I started, and while it might be stronger, it is still coming in slow building gusts and changing directions. 

Point Lodge

I head down to check on Point beaver lodge, which looks good and has plenty of fresh gnawing nearby. I round the point and head up the small pocket marsh that backs the lodge.  It is just too windy out in the open with what I guess to be 25-30 mph gusts. It is a good time to call it a day. Heading down farther would put me out in the wind, and going back upstream above the start point didn't need to be repeated.

Clear the Head

I put in just as the tide peaks and head across the river to the four islands. I have always had a hard time remembering the two inner islands, Peacock and Carting, remembering the names of course, but not which is which. Looking at an old map the other day, I realized that Carting was actually the largest of the four.  I just never thought of it that way because Pope's Flat and Long Island (not that Long Island) are out in the river channel whereas Carting and Peacock are off to the side.

The temperature is already running up through the 40's and the wind is light and out of the NW. Paddling up the west shore puts me in calm air except for an occasional puff.

Today, it takes about an hour for politics to clear my head, such is the horseshit in Washington DC.

I pass the Dragonfly factory, deciding to go as far as Great Flat. In the creek inlet on the west shore, I find a small flock of Common Mergansers.  I return the way that I came.

Happy Bird Day

 It is another warm and calm day.  It is a happy bird day. An owl passes close by before I am in the water. I watch it glide through the trees until it has disappeared. Heading downriver, Red Wing Blackbirds trill from the cattails with the chatter of Kingfishers in the background. All seem pleased with this day.

There is some ice in the water - small flows, five or ten square feet in area. It is ice that formed up in pockets of the cattail marsh, knocked loose by the warmth and high tide. The flows aren't big and there isn't enough that it will jam up anywhere on the river, but the bergy bits aren't to be underestimated. They started as thin sheet ice, but then had one or two inches of snow added to the top.  Next, the tidal waters saturate the snow and quite quickly there is three inches of ice.  The flows don't move much when you bump them with a canoe, and they are heavy enough to damage the canoe if you hit them wrong.

Still above the Clapboard Hill Bridge, I flush 50 Ducks from almost 200 yards away.  Too far to identify them by sight, the behavior signals Black Ducks, which are by far the most skittish of Ducks that I come across in this area. 

At the Big Bends, I flush another 50 Black Ducks, this time getting a good look at them. They in turn flush another bunch, and another. It's a chain reaction until about a 150 have taken flight.  They don't have far to go to settle in again with the wide marsh to the side of the river well flooded.

Below the railroad, I enter the Sneak, which has more than enough water for me to get through.  I flush a flock of two dozen Canada Geese while going through.  The larger than normal numbers of birds is probably due to hunting season being over, and ice conditions farther inland.  

Ring Necks

I head down Bailey Creek, then Neck River, and back to the East River. There is a small flock of Scaups about a hundred yards downstream of the confluence.

It is work heading back as the tide is midway into the ebb. In the Big Bends, I flush a small flock of Ring Neck Ducks. 

Nearing Clapboard hill Bridge, there is more ice than when I came down, with several larger flows.  I pause once when several flows are spanning the river, and then gently pick one out and give it a gentle spin with the bow of the canoe, and sneak past.  A couple of the bigger flows are about thirty feet long and five or six feet wide, and four inches thick.

East River, Bailey Creek, and Neck River

Finding More Stuff

It is one of the best days this year with a very light wind, sun, and temperatures into the lower 40's.  I put in on the Housatonic, under the highway bridge, with an hour of falling tide still to go. It would be nice to visit a different river, but if most of those rivers are open, they will have a bunch of ice moving about.

I cross the river and head upstream, following the east side of Carting Island, one of the four island complex just upstream of the put-in.  There is about 3 to 4 feet of cut bank exposed here and I consider that unlike down in the Wheeler Marsh, I almost never find anything sticking out of the bank. I would think that occasionally I would find an old bottle, but the only time that has happened on these islands, it has been a mudflat find, which is of no use at figuring soil accumulation.  These islands are only a mile up from the Wheeler, and so I'd imagine some similarities. One thing is that the cut banks on the four islands appear more stratified with obvious layers that are 3 or 4 inches thick. I do find some cobble features. Without any firm land or rock outcrops,these rockeries are almost for sure man-madeIt reminds me of an archaeology project I worked on.  The ground was old volcanic ash and the archaeologist told us, "If you find a rock, it's an artifact, because someone had to bring it here."

Carting Island

I flush a flock of two dozen Bufflheads plus an immature Bald Eagle, and a Harrier circles overhead while drifting in a down river direction.

At Peck's Mill, I spot some old trolley type rails and two associated axle/wheels and some assembled planking that seems too fine to just be a dock platform.  There was a couple of millponds above the river at this location.  An old map lists a boat yard among the mills. The rails and wheel sets could have been used for launching boats.  But, there is another possibility for the debris.  There also was a trolley line running along the river with a long fifty foot high trestle crossing one of the millponds. In 1899, the trolley derailed off of the bridge and landed upside down killing 28 people.  I make a note to myself that I need to return with a tape measure and get the gauge of the axles.

I continue up, cross over to Fowler Island and round it, rturning on the east shore.

Pushing a Little Ice

 As I have said already, this winter has either been wind or freeze.  Today, the wind subsides to something under 10mph. It is still below freezing when I put in, but with the sun, it is a nice day for a winter paddle.

The tide is almost out with not quite an hour to go. There is about 30 feet of broken ice to push through to get out into the river, but it is thin busted up sheets and slush - nothing to worry about.

I head down river toward the marsh.  The main channel has a winter mix - Loons, Buffleheads, Red Breasted Mergansers, Black Ducks and a few Mallards.  An immature Bald Eagle is picking at carrion on the mud flat at the top of the marsh. 

I head down Nell's channel, thinking about marsh morphology, as I usually do these days.  Four feet of bank is exposed on Nell's Island. The bottom of that bank was probably laid down before the Civil War. I never find anything that far down. 

Farther down the channel, I start flushing Canada Geese.  Hunting season closed last weekend and the birds tend to be more evenly distributed in the marsh when no one is shooting at them.  

Greater Scaup

I cross the river when I exit Nell's Channel, on some undeveloped brain fart that I might see something interesting on the west shore.  Of course, I don't.  The only good part of  this route is that I can view what birds are out in the main channel.  I find a Greater Scaup, which lets me approach within two canoe lengths.  I end up counting eight Common Loons as I make my way back up river. A female Red Breasted Merganser surfaces just three feet to my side. It dives and swims to just ahead of the canoe, resurfaces and flies off in great haste across the river.

What I Think About

Getting out in the canoe this winter has been difficult. We've had a few unusually long stretched of windy weather interspersed with good old fashioned cold that created enough ice to force a retreat to areas near the salt water. This morning comes calm with a steely gray sky, the advance warning of snow in the afternoon. The temperature when I set out is 27F, but the previous days have been warm enough that the only ice should be the thin overnight skim that forms in calm spots.

I put in at my usual start point about a mile upriver of the marsh. The tide has been coming in for about an hour, so the opposing flood current is still fairly light.

Near the drawbridge, I start spotting birds. It is the winter mix - a few Canada Geese, some Buffleheads, Black Ducks, Mallards, a Red Breasted Merganser.  A Loon appears, unusually near, maybe 2 canoe lengths.  I think we are both giving each other the eyeball as the Loon should dive and swim away, but it doesn't.  I get a few quick photographs, and then paddle away figuring that it has as much right to be left alone as I did. 

The mile down to the marsh has more Ducks and Geese than normal. This is a hunting pattern that I have begun to recognize; hunters anywhere in the marsh push much of the waterfowl to the outer edges, which are no hunting zones because they are near houses. 

One of my current projects is to determine the rate of accretion (soil accumulation) in the marsh. So far, I've been collecting old bottles as the become visible in the cut banks. Bottles can often be dated to a five or ten year span without any scientific equipment, and at this point, I have a 50 years per foot estimate of accretion. (In the above photo, the soil at the water level would date to some time around the Civil War.) However, much of the marsh doesn't cooperate due to it being mudflats, or for some reason, just lacking debris where I need it.  So, lately I have been looking into old maps and writings about the marsh.  Generally, I want two independent sources before I "begin" to trust any story.  One item that I read reported that the marsh was more of a bay during the 19th century.  I have my doubts about that as the only old maps (ca 1830-40) from that era that I've located were made for the purpose of selling or taxing land.  Those maps are drawn showing open water everywhere that there isn't solid land, and the lack of any marsh symbology, especially on the edges and backwaters shows that the mapmaker considered marsh to be non-land, which is not an unusual viewpoint for that time period - if you couldn't build on it, farm on it, or mine it, it was useless. Some of the "bay" idea might very well extend from viewing inaccurate maps. The first good map series that tried to show land as it was are the early USGS topographic maps, which were begun in the 1890's. There are some old sea charts, but then again, they don't bother much with marsh because you couldn't drive a steamboat through it.

I head down the main channel following the outside of Nell's Island, flushing one Harrier from the spartina as I go.  My only side trip is to check out the main entrance to the center of the island. It is shallow with the low tide, but never having been in here at low tide, it's worth the look because one never knows until one goes.  After a hundred yards, it goes too shallow to proceed.  

I continue down, passing a hunters' boat tide off to shore.  As I round the point to come back via Nell's Channel, I spot the Goose hunters about 200 yards in. I decide to leave them alone and turn back up the main channel. 

At the top of the marsh, I head back a ways into Beaver Creek, flushing about a Hundred Canada Geese and several dozen Ducks. They fly off being careful to avoid flying over the main marsh where the hunters are.  They're birds, they're not stupid.

Against the Flow

It is a calm day, the calm before the storm, of course.  We will get a half foot of snow tonight. 

With the likely hood of the inland rivers being frozen, at least likely enough that it isn't worth the drive, I return to the Wheeler Marsh. The tide is halfway out by the time I get my act together. It is an easy paddle down to the marsh on the ebb current.  There are two Loons in the usual spot, in the current near the drawbridge. I flush Mallards and Black Ducks fro the riverside all of the way down to the marsh.

Once I am in the marsh, the current is against me as marshes fill and drain... going into the marsh from any direction is against the current. I try one of my favorite inner channels, but after a hundred yards, it's obvious that I won't be able to exit out of the far end.  As I spin the canoe, I catch sight of a Harrier gliding into the marsh  behind me. At Cat Island I find a Goose hunter set up with some decoys.  He reports that it has been quiet.  The other day when I was here, I flushed a hundred Geese from this spot. I find a couple more hunters in the bottom of the marsh. They might as well have a flashing neon sign saying, "Stay Away!  Hunters!".  Geese and Ducks were well distributed throughout the marsh five days ago. But, with just a few hunters present, I haven't seen a Duck or Goose since entering the marsh.

I cross over and head up Nell's Channel, against the current of course.  There is a solitary Loon in the channel, by the upper island where I usually see a Loon or two.  I flush a Harrier from the shore - that makes six sightings, although it is probably not that many birds.

Windchill

The wind was more than expected when I got to the river, it was coming downriver at just under 15mph, although my estimate may be off a bit given that there was a nippy windchill added on to the 30F temperature. Since it was low tide and my options would be limited down in the marsh, I crossed the river and headed up into the quad islands, which would have some protection from the wind as well as a downwind return trip.

Heading up the shore, I flush a Great Blue Heron, and I find a lone Coot sheltering at the tip of Carting Island. There are quite a few Ducks, mostly Mallards or Blacks in the channel.  They move off as I approach, but not much farther than the opposite side of the small island. 

Coot

It is a slow trip up the westernmost channel - between Peacock Island and the shore.  The tide has just started to come in, but since the water is not much more than 6 or 8 inches deep for most of the distance, so I just poke along trying not to stick myself in the mud. At the mid point of the channel, where there is a natural stone dike, I wait for about ten minutes while the water rises, and then squeak a tight turn around the end of the rocks.

At the top of the islands, I flush three immature Bald Eagles from the shoreline trees.  One of them catches something when they're about 150 yards upriver and another makes a steal after a few moments of dogfighting. I continue up to Pope's Mill site before making my retreat. It is cold enough that I'm not motivated for a longer paddle against the current.

I manage to make it through the narrow Carting/Peacock channel. This is the shallowest of the channels and when I passed it heading upstream, it was exposed mud. I flush a Harrier while in there, and a Snipe.  I don't get a good look at the Snipe (which is normal), but it is the right size and right color, and it flies a speedy zigzag, in the air for barely a second before landing.  That is pretty much how Snipe act when flushed.  It is my second Snipe sighting in two canoe trips. 

Coming out of the islands, a Common Loon gives me a call.  Their winter calls, which they use rarely, also seem to be much more muted than in summer.  I cross over the river by the drawbridge and find two Great Blue Herons just down from the launch, where they seem to be discussing fishing rights.

Timing is Everything, or Not

 We got about 2 inches of snow last night. But with it, the temperature started to warm. Yesterday morning it was 15F. Today, it will rise to over 40F. The snow will melt. It is, definitely, a winter canoe day with not only pleasant temperatures, but also no more than a 5mph wind.

I put in under the highway bridge.  The tide is rising with about 2 hours to go. It is a bit of a crawl down to the marsh. I spot some Buffleheads and Mergansers near the drawbridge, and three Common Loons, which are taking advantage of the tidal current that gets amplified near the bridge.

Bufflehead Drake

The big treat of the day comes just as I reach the marsh.  A snipe takes off from the edge of the water, does a zig and a zag, as they do when flying, and settles down out of view in the grasses.  I rarely see Snipe, and thinking about it, it has been in colder weather. I suppose the cold ground moves them closer to the water for food.

There are more Canada Geese and Ducks than normal, and they are more distributed over the marsh than usual. Ice up farther inland has pushed birds down here. It's often most noticeable by the number of Swans that show up, although today, they are somewhere I am not. By Cat Island, I flush a flock of a hundred Geese.

There's a pick up truck at the refuge launch and I find a hunter about 200 yards away. He waves me through his Goose decoys, hasn't had any luck yet, but he's only been sitting there for an hour. 

There is little ice in the marsh and most of it is fully rotten salt water ice. The canoe doesn't cut through it but rather just mushes through as if paddling through a pond full of frozen peas. 

I get over to Nell's Channel too soon, so I cut back through the center aiming for the Central Phragmites patch. There is some firm ice here as this is spot is protected from the wind and never sees a current of any account.  I push up onto it, some breaks under the weight and some just gets pushed down. Then, I cut through the marsh over to Cat Island and head out and back up river.