Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Earth Day Plus 1

Following a good Earth night's rest in the town of Shelton, Connecticut, I headed back to the Housatonic River.  Rain had fallen throughout the night and the weather forecast called for gradually improving conditions to be ushered in by a gusty northwest breeze.  The closest launch site to the point where I'd turned around on Friday was the Southbank Open Space off Route 110.  Not the easiest place to launch, what with a steep bank and rocky shore, but launching there saved me 2 miles of down and back versus the easier launch at Sunnyside.

First order of business was paddling down to Great Flats Island where my upriver progress had ended on Friday.  The island is opposite where the Far Mill River enters from the west.  The area to the island's east was only accessible from its south end due to the earlier low tide.  Once there I found the long stretch of plastic-littered shore located on the upper Charles E. Wheeler Wildlife Management Area I'd seen the day before...

 
 
Filling my dry bag and more didn't take long but, sadly, it hardly made a dent...
 
 
This low-lying area must be ideally situated to serve as a plastic flotsam magnet and would be a worthy location for a cleanup.
 
With my dots now connected I began heading upriver (opening photo) with the tide, but against the wind.  Fishermen were seen at almost every spot where the shoreline allowed access, as well as many others fishing from numerous small power boats and a kayak.  This would be the theme all the way up to the Derby Dam.  It looked like "Opening Day" for striped bass season!
 
I passed Wooster Island and, further upriver, reached Two Mile Island which is actually not an island these days.  I was impressed with how high the one-time island's terrain rises above the river.  The north end of it is gradually being whittled down by what looks to be a stone and gravel operation.
 
Once past Two Mile Island the railroad bridge across the Naugatuck River came into view...
...and to its left Hog Island marks the confluence of the Housatonic and its 40 mile long tributary the Naugatuck River.  I landed near a small inlet to a pond...
...where a beaver circled while checking me out...
The area around the confluence comprises O'Sullivan Island and the smaller Hog Island.  Back in the day this was an important shipping port at the head of tidewaters.  Nowadays the confluence area hosts a railroad junction, a recreational trail, and many shore fishermen.
 
Re-launching I began the final quarter mile to the Derby Dam.  The effects of the incoming tide were much less helpful at this point.  My slower progress allowed time to admire one of the older bridges in Derby...
...and the Birmingham Bank building dating from 1892...
 
The Derby Dam came into sight as I passed abandoned manufacturing facilities on both sides of the river...
 
 
Little Buttonball Island lies at my bow's tip and was hosting some recent arrivals...
 
 
Historians such as Wilcoxson mention that on the river's west shore in this area stood the Native American village Pootatuck which must have been a busy spot when fish were migrating up through the falls.  It was interesting to note during my visit that the largest group of fishermen observed at any one spot was gathered here at the base of the dam.
 
Above and beyond the dam is 136 miles of freshwater as the Housatonic disappears to the northwestward...
 
 
It was in the same direction that Native Americans would journey in search of refuge from what was their ancestral homeland. 
Wilcoxson wrote "Like the last rays of a setting sun, as they fade into darkness, so did the Indians disappear before the advance of a superior civilization....." 
 
I'm left to wonder just how superior that advancing civilization really was.  Is the Housatonic River more beautiful today than it was in 1600?  As I look around our New England waterways I see many abandoned manufacturing sites such as this...
Are they an indication of how a superior civilization treats its waterways?  We're good at building stuff and making it produce, but then when the profit is no longer there, we walk away forgetting the disassembly, cleanup, and restoration part.  Food for thought as I headed downriver to my takeout at Southbank Open Space where a group of shore fishermen were still awaiting striped bass...
Though the fish weren't biting, food was being cooked on a grill and everyone seemed to be enjoying their time along the Housatonic River. 



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