We left from Riverside Park (opening photo) in Hartford on what was becoming a classic summer-like day. Plenty of sunshine and rapidly warming temperatures.
Appropriately for this Memorial Day weekend, a group of veterans were preparing to launch their kayaks as well. I believe they were with the group Veterans' Rowing and Kayaking.
After taking a quick peek into the Hockanum River...
The fact that the river once hosted ocean-going barges was evident at several locations such as this power generating facility...
These days, with less traffic of that nature, some of the equipment now serves other purposes...
At Wethersfield Cove a steady line of powerboats was heading out to the river. With this being the unofficial start of summer it was like opening day for most anything that floats...except for some less fortunate craft...
...and also one powerboat we saw being towed off of a sandbar by TowBoatUS as its occupants stood in the river.
The main navigational channel hosted a seemingly endless parade of powerboats, jet-skis, and pontoon boats. The wakes combined with a southerly breeze created lively waters.
The Rocky Hill ferry, said to be the oldest continually operating ferry in the USA, had just crossed the river and was preparing to unload...
At a spot where the riverbank is rather steep I thought I heard a woman call out "Hey Iceman" from the top landing...
...it was that hot!
Gildersleeve Island had drawn a good-sized group of beached powerboats so we pushed on towards Wilcox Island and the mouth of the Mattabesset River...
...where other kayakers had found refuge from the wind and chop.
Just beyond Wilcox Island is the elegant Arrigoni Bridge...
...which from below has a rollercoaster look...
But my favorite structure was the old and rusty center-pivoting railroad bridge built in 1911...
Both the Capt'n and I felt sure it hadn't seen the passage of a train in decades...but we were both wrong as I later came across this youtube video shot last October showing not one, not two, but three Providence and Worcester locomotives pulling a few freight cars across.
A closer look at the movable center span shows the bridge operator's control shack perched up high...
On a railfan discussion board I found where someone asked how the bridge was left in an open position when the operator went off-duty...the answer was that because it was manned 24/7 when one operator left the bridge another came aboard. In its glory days the bridge carried trains traversing the New York to Boston Air Line. These days the bridge is only opened when necessary to access rail customers across the river in Portland, and the controls are housed in a shack located on the fixed span.
The same discussion board mentioned the bridge having been used in 1993 by Billy Joel for his music video "The River of Dreams". Billy and his back-up singers perform while standing upon wood planks laid across the rails.
After the railroad bridge we passed the docked Lady Katherine Cruise boat (biggest craft seen all day)...
...just before reaching our takeout at Middletown's Harbor Park.
A very modest trash haul came ashore with us...
It was a good day for working on honing our paddle-scooping techniques used in recovering trash while "on the fly".
Traveling home on a quiet Sunday morning I stopped alongside the French River in Webster, Ma where this tiny New Haven switch engine passes away the days...
...with a Providence and Worcester RR caboose...
At a nearby beer garden is this cryptic message...
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