Day 2

We head back to the Mattabasset.  With some wind predicted and the fact that yesterday I saw no one else on the river, it seemed reasonable to repeat, but with S in the bow seat.

The water is several inches higher than yesterday.  At the put-in this doesn't seem apparent, but as we head down river where the forest floor is lower, it becomes obvious.  I tell S that a couple weeks back, the water was 8 feet higher.  This sinks in when I point to some cattails on the far side of a strip of trees and tell her that the tops of the cattails were at least 3 feet below the water level.  

Just below the goat ranch, I steer us into the forest and we weave a route through the trees for the next  couple hundred yards before coming out in one of the side marshes.  A Hawk is overhead being dive bombed by a Blackbird. The Blackbird hits the Hawk on the back several times before the Hawk decides to move away.

From there, we head down to the big marsh and cross over to the trees on the east side.  We paddle back as far as the old dirt road, maybe 75 yards before the water runs out. We flush a Great Blue Heron from the forest.  It always amazes me to see such a large bird fly through such a dense forest.

We head back up short cutting a couple of the meanders. We greet a fisherman that I met a couple trips earlier and he tells us that he caught a 4 lb large mouth bass later on the day that we first met.

We head up to the new deadfall so that S can look at the Hawk nest, which is sideways and at eye level.

That makes for a good day and we head back out.