Today's blog entry is nothing more than an experimental video. I've shot static time lapse movies before, but this time I mounted a camera on the bow of my moving kayak. The camera was programmed to take one picture every minute. I wouldn't recommend watching this movie if you suspect that you suffer from epilepsy. It's full of abrupt transitions and unscripted cameo appearances (mostly by Wendy).
The adventure began at the old McKinley ferry crossing just below the Mactaquac dam. Sadly the old road to the water is in disrepair, and someone (translation: some scumbag) has decided to use the shoulder of the road as his personal dump. It's not an impressive site, but things quickly got better. Within the first ten minutes we spotted about 8-10 bald eagles, 4 or 5 of them were sitting in one massive pine tree. They like to congregate below the dam because food must be plentiful, plus the scenery is spectacular.
We also saw osprey, kingfishers, cormorants, ducks, crows, and even fish! We went through one pool where I saw three fish come to the surface. I assume they were salmon grilse but I'm not sure of that. They might have been sea trout or something else. They were considerably longer than one foot, but less than two feet long.
The banks of the river are punctuated by houses which, if I had to characterize them, are quite often of the McMansion scale. It's amazing to think that people are still building 3000 square foot (+) palaces. Will we never learn? Some people live in houses, some people live in their egos. We saw some people gardening or puttering around their yards, but no contact was made with the 'natives'. The riverbanks themselves were lined with verdant ostrich ferns (fiddleheads) which had attained not-quite-fully-mature heights of about 15 inches. Anyone living along the river could subsidize their housing costs by picking fiddleheads for supper!
We only saw one other boat on the water during our paddle down the river. It was a bass boat going 50 miles an hour up the river with an impressive rooster tail behind it. Impressive...to a red neck or a bass turd, that is. Otherwise it was noisy and obtrusive. Luckily it was on the far side of the river and it went up a side channel before it got to us.
We paddled past the Bucket Club which has evolved into a seasonal trailer park. From the water it is quite an eyesore. The river bank has been raped and replaced with bare, jagged rocks. Edging the bank are those horrendous white trailer boxes that destroy the summer landscape, like unwanted white snow on green grass. That said, it's supply and demand. The people are getting what they want, and the government gives permits to those who choose to destroy the ecosystem. The river weeps. The trailer people celebrate the great outdoors, such as it is.
We pulled our kayaks ashore about a mile below the club of buckets, then carried them across the bike path and up to the roadside. I must say, it was a most enjoyable paddle and the rain/drizzle managed to hold of for our hour and a half long adventure. It should become an annual event....most definitely a worthy spring ritual.
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