Early this morning, with the last full day of summer's sun rising rapidly in a cloudless and blue sky, I paddled my kayak upstream on the Sudbury River to the mouth of Pantry Brook and back. On this trip I had belted kingfishers running ahead of me to herald my progress upriver. There was quite a bit a chattering amongst them as they switched-off with each other sort of like the 'Pony Express'. Today, these belted kingfishers were the most prevalent wildlife followed by blue herons, what sounded like wood ducks, Canada geese, a couple of hawks, and a lone cormorant.
At Heath's Bridge, I collected 8 empty containers which made up most of my trash load for the trip. Later, I would add a mylar "Happy Birthday" balloon.
At Fairhaven Bay, with not another soul in sight, I enjoyed a little breakfast before noting an abandoned rowboat adrift on the Bay's west side. I believe it is the same boat I saw some guys paddling with a board a few weeks ago. In fact the board or very crude paddle is still in the boat.
Shortly thereafter, I was passing under Lee's Bridge and continuing to Pantry Brook. Just downstream of the impoundment wall, I noted that the river's water level is dropping fairly fast. Though there is still a good flow from Pantry Brook over the wall, it is nothing like it was last Sunday, when the flow created a fairly loud waterfall.
On the trip downriver, I encountered a couple of seriously 'decked-out for fishing' kayaks heading upriver near Lee's Bridge. At Fairhaven Bay, I saw a guy fishing from a canoe who had the whole bay to himself and further downriver a group of paddlers in competitive canoes and kayaks were heading upriver at a pretty good clip.
I'm hoping this incredibly fine weather can continue for a few more days as tomorrow I'm heading up to paddle the Northern Forest Canoe Trail's Lake Champlain section. Knocking on my noggin as I write this and planning to do my 'Indian Summer' dance later on.
Trash count for day was 9 empty containers bringing YTD total to 1891.
No comments:
Post a Comment