Sunday, February 28, 2016

A Willin' Willimantic

On this beautiful spring-like day I journeyed to the northeast corner of Connecticut to join with paddlers Erik, Jonathan, Mike, and Scott for a drift down the Willimantic River.

We launched from Plains Road about 2 miles below Stafford Springs and let the river sweep us along a course that parallels both Route 32 and the New England Central Railroad down to River Park in Mansfield.

The day's great weather (sunshine with temps 50 degrees plus) brought many folks to the river's edge and some even into the river itself...

The water level was ideal for our purposes. 

Heron Cove...
...made a great lunch spot...
The kiosk there provides information about the  21 mile long Willimantic River Water Trail which runs from Stafford Springs to Windham, Connecticut.

A few miles below Heron Cove we reached Peck's Mill Site...
...which provided a fun  ripple for Scott in his liquidlogic...
...as well as Erik and Jonathan in their Mohawk...
...and Mike in his prospector...

Another group of paddlers came through Peck's while we were there...


It was a great day to be on this river...
...and all too soon we reached our takeout spot at River Park...
...on yet another Plains Road.

Visit Erik's blog Open Boat, Moving Water - A Paddler's Journal for his account and photos.

A small haul of trash was scooped up at the launch site and at some of the slower spots along the way...

2 comments:

Erik Eckilson said...

Great paddling with you yesterday Al - as always!

Al said...

Thanks to you for organizing a great paddle!