Day two, Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Spring rains have been heavy and persistent.  I have not had the opportunity to return to the river because it has been a raging, cappucino with foam on top, log-toting danger zone for weeks.  The level has been consistently high even between rains.  And on top of that, the canal birm was breached somewhere along the lock 4 to lock 5 stretch, so the park service had to drain it.  Or, maybe it just drained itself.  In any case, the breach was repaired and the canal refilled by Sunday, May 1.

I was eager to get back on water, and my schedule would only allow for me to paddle in on Wednesday of this week.  When Wednesday came, the rain returned.  But who cares?  Water below, water above.  Its just water.  As a friend once said, "what are you made of, sugar?"  Since I'm not, I put my work clothes in my dry bag, hoisted my boat on my shoulder, and set off towards the canal.

When I reached Fletcher's Boat House, I stepped out of the boat onto the dock so I could take a look at the river.  It was still raging.  Fletcher's Cove was not much of a cove at all, but rather just a fast-moving part of the river channel.  Not for me.  I decided to stay on the canal.

Continuing inbound along the calm, controlled environment of the canal has its pleasures.  Within the first five minutes, a kingfisher appeared.  It dipped and dived across the canal, alighting just ahead of me on overhanging branches several times.  I didn't see what it was after.  Perhaps it was just hanging out with me.  It seems that the kingfisher is becoming a totem of sorts for me.

A Canada goose appeared around a bend, bobbing peacefully in the center of the canal.  I wondered why a single goose was there all alone, until I spied another hunkered on small peninsula jutting out from the canal wall, just 3'x3' or so.  The goose peered out from a tuft of tall grasses, and was clearly a female on her nest, tipping me off that the "lone" goose was her man, on patrol.

The other notable natural sightings were stands of wild, yellow irises.  It appeared that about half of them were in bloom, and the other half were just about to bloom.  I expect that you could still see them this weekend.  I also saw a goldfinch, a bluebird (not a blue jay), and one big (12" at least) fish thrashing in the growth at the shallow edge along the towpath - after an unlucky bug, I presume.

On the un-natural side, there was not too much garbage in the canal.  Although, I did notice that most of the floating garbage appeared where tributaries or other drains dumped into the canal.  I am pleased to say that this makes me think that most of the trash in the canal is not tossed there by people enjoying the towpath.  On the other hand, people need to remember that storm drains flow into natural bodies of water eventually.

After stowing my boat at Thompson Boat Center, I jogged the rest of the way to work through the steady rain.  It took only a few minutes to put on dry clothes.  But, it took about an hour for my hands to become limber again.  They were pretty frozen.