De Pan

Quality Time with S

I talk S into a short canoe trip on a very sunny and fine spring day, one that has been long awaited through an unusually cold and snowy winter for this part of  the country.


We put in on the Menunketesuck River a good three hours before high tide.  The water is low and just barely deep enough at the put-in, but not many yards downstream we find a good deep channel that runs without break.  There is a fairly strong wind, one that requires compensation, particularly with S in the bow, her weight something like that of a bird.  At this tide level we hug the windward shore when possible, the three feet of exposed bank sheltering us from the wind.

At the first bend, two osprey have reclaimed the artificial nest box and it looks like they will be there for the season.  After the second bend, where the houses end and the marsh and forest take over, a pair of hawks is soaring.  A second pair of osprey have taken position on the nest box near the railroad.  If there are any egrets around, we don't see them.  At this tide level they might be feeding elsewhere for the time being.

S agrees that the scale of the landscape should make for a spectacular trip when the leaves change in the fall, but she also adds that it will be good to see the marsh and forest change through the seasons.

It is supposed to be a short trip and when continuing presents us with a return trip into the teeth of the wind, we turn back.