EasternSlopes.com » Connecticut

Perfect Places To Paddle

Tim Jones — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:48:55 +0000

Perfect weather brings crowds to many ponds and lakes in the northeast. But this flood control reservoir was quiet and beautiful on Labor Day weekend..

What’s a perfect place to paddle a kayak for you? It seems to me that you are either a people person or you aren’t. I’m mostly not.

Some folks love to paddle along settled shorelines. That has it’s appeal, I suppose. But I prefer seeing trees, not lawns and houses, wildlife, not people. And I especially like places with little or no motorboat traffic.

I’m not talking about big adventures. I’d love to paddle a kayak along the coast of Labrador or Greenland, but that’s only a dream. I’m talking about places where you can paddle in the evening after work or on a sunny weekend morning before you have to run errands

My sweetheart Marilyn, who has only recently discovered the joys of paddling also prefers secluded. But secluded is sometimes hard to find. We can’t drive many hours every time we want to enjoy a quiet hour or two of paddling.

Fortunately we’ve discovered quiet places close to our home on flood control lakes maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. Here in New England, most of our towns and cities grew up along the banks of rivers. Rivers are subject to flooding and many towns were regularly inundated until the Corps of Engineers built flood control dams.

Controlling floods requires space to temporarily store water. In the typical flood-control project there’s a BIG dam holding back a small pond or lake. Since the surrounding land is periodically flooded, it can’t be developed–which creates some of the most beautiful, unspoiled shorelines you can imagine.

Moreover, most Corps projects actively manage habitat for wildlife—which makes them ideal places for birding and wildlife viewing from a kayak spring and summer, and fall.

On a perfect late-summer Sunday this past Labor Day Weekend, with the air crisp and the sky a bright blue, Marilyn and I launched our boats on a flood control pond not far from our home. The morning mist was still hanging heavily in the air and the only other people around were a few bass fishermen probing the lilly pads for largemouths. We could hear them talking quietly long before we could see them through the mists.

This particular impoundment has five permanent ponds, interconnected by marshes and flat stretches of river that wind beneath a canopy of tree limbs. Once we got away from the voices of the anglers on the ponds and into the narrow, shallow channel of the old river, we might as well been a thousand miles from the nearest person.

At one point Marilyn rounded a tree that had recently fallen over with its top in the water. There were leaves still on the branches, and they must have hidden her approach, because she startled a Great Blue Heron that was no more than 30 feet away when it flapped into the air. A little while later we saw a flock of ducks pass overhead at tree-top height. On previous paddles we’ve seen beavers, otters and muskrats in the water and I once watched a fox hunting along the shore. You don’t usually get up close and personal with wildlife on more developed ponds.

The best way to find Corps projects to paddle is to visit the website at www.nae.usace.army.mil where all the sites are listed in detail. Some have permanent ponds, others are flooded only after heavy rains. Paddling among the treetops is a special treat. If there’s a flood control project anywhere near you, I can almost guarantee it’ll be worth exploring in a kayak. Life isn’t a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy!

PADDLING ON THE DRINK

Another great resource for ponds with undeveloped shorelines is public water supply reservoirs. Some, like the huge Quabbin reservoir in central Massachusetts are strictly off limits to boaters of all sorts.

Others, such as lovely Massabesic Lake, the water supply for Manchester NH, allow canoeing and kayaking. Massabesic’s regulations allow paddlesports but prohibit windsurfing and other sports which “makes extensive bodily contact with the water unavoidable.”

The same regulations that prohibit swimming and such on public water supplies also protect the shorelines from development. The shorelines of these ponds are often pristine and beautiful.

MARSH MADNESS

The third resource for pristine paddling are marshes and other wetlands. Very often these have winding channels and small ponds which are too small or too shallow for bigger boats but are perfect for exploring by kayak. Look on the map for anything marked as a marsh near your home—chances are some great paddling awaits.

Salty Kayaking

Tim Jones — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:01:28 +0000

First time ever! A newcomer to paddling, Marilyn Donnelly tries out a wide, stable Pungo 120 from Wilderness Systems on the ocean in Harpswell, Maine. She loved it.

I grew up paddling canoes, but the very first time I ever plunked my boney butt in a kayak and started paddling was on the ocean. I was on a “packaged” exploration of the Maine Island Trail in Penobscot Bay with H2Outfitters (1-800-20-KAYAK). For three days and four nights we paddled from island to island, camping at night with no one else around, exploring during the day, eating splendid meals cooked out on the beach, seeing seabirds, seals, porpoises, eagles, and jellyfish up close and personal.

No wonder I immediately decided that seakayaking was a pastime I enjoyed . . . Since then I’ve paddle on the ocean whenever I’ve gotten the opportunity.

Then I got serious and horsetraded some stuff I no longer used for a couple of used seakayaks, a 14-foot Perception Corona and a big, sleek 17-foot Aquaterra Sea Lion. Neither of these boats are made anymore (Perception now makes the similar Tribute), but they are both seaworthy, beautiful, and great performers. And, best of all, they let me paddle whenever I feel like it, on the ocean in Maine, around Cape Cod, and even on some of the lakes and bigger rivers in New England.

Which created a problem . . .

My sweetheart Marilyn for all her great sense of adventure, doesn’t swim and has not been comfortable around water. She’d tried canoeing, definitely didn’t like it, and was content for awhile to stay on shore and watch me paddle away . . . until it began to gnaw at her that she hadn’t actually tried kayaking and therefore didn’t know if she liked it or not. She doesn’t like missing out on anything fun, and likes making her own decisions about what’s fun and what isn’t.

Her opportunity came this past weekend when we visited our friends David and Susan on “Fantasy Island” off the mouth of the New Meadows River in Harpswell, Maine. This is magnificent paddling country, the weather was perfect, and we had four kayaks available: my two sea kayaks and David’s two Wilderness Systems Pungos, a 120 and 100 (12-foot and 10-foot, respectively). The 10-foot Pungo 100 is a stable, kinda-slow little peapod, mainly designed for quiet ponds, but the 12-foot 120 is a really nice all-around boat. It’s much wider and therefore feels more stable than many kayaks (including my Corona), but still moves along quickly and turns easily.

David and I paddled the two sea kayaks out to the island through some blustery winds, strong currents and pretty rough chop. We had a blast.

Early the next morning was dead calm and he and I paddled his two smaller boats to some nearby rocks to gather mussels for lunch. I came back raving about the stability of the 12-foot Pungo and how much fun it was to paddle on calm seas. Marilyn decided she had to try.

We all went out that afternoon. It took Marilyn all of five minutes in the boat before she decided she loved it. She caught on to the basics quickly and we paddled several miles, exploring some hidden coves, watched the lobster boats, seabirds and herons going about their business.

That afternoon she tried the Corona seakayak, which doesn’t feel as stable (initial feelings can be deceiving) and she liked that, too. In fact, for the rest of the trip she chose to paddle “her” Corona while the rest of us tried to keep up with her.

So, Marilyn and I have added kayaking to the list of Active Outdoor pastimes we love to do together. What about you? Life isn’t a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy!

SEA KAYAK RESOURCES

A kayak of her own. Marilyn Donnelly quickly claimed “her” Perception Corona sea kayak for expeditions along the Maine coast near Harpswell. As she discovered, paddling a sea kayak is easy and fun,

If you don’t know anyone who will take you out on your first (or 50^th) sea kayaking expedition, there are plenty of places to get onto the water safely with good equipment.

A year after my first seakayaking adventure with H2O, I went out on a day paddle with Seaspray Kayaking (1-888-349-7772; www.seaspraykayaking.com), which runs tours from the Sebasco Harbor Resort (www.sebasco.com) and daytrips and longer treks from two other locations along the mid-Maine coast.

Since then I’ve paddled on Western Bay near Acadia National Park with a group from National Park Sea Kayak Tours (1-800-347-0940; www.acadiakayak.com), and on Town Cove in Orleans, Mass. with the Outdoor Center at the Goose Hummock Shop (508-255-0455; www.goose.com) .

Once you’ve gotten some experience you can start to take off on your own. I paddled again among the islands of Penobscot Bay while windjammer cruising aboard the schooner Isaac H. Evans (1-877-238-1325; www.mainesailingadventures.com) in a sea kayak I’d rented from EMS (www.ems.com). I’ve also paddled a rented kayak from Action Sports (203-481-5511; www.actionsportsct.com) around the Thimble Islands off Stoney Creek, Connecticut. If you don’t want to do it alone, Connecticut Coastal Kayaking (860-391-3837; www.ctcoastalkayaking.com) offers guided trips around the Thimbles and other areas along the Connecticut coast

Almost every place that sells kayaks has rentals and demo boats you can try. Paddling on salt water is pure fun—give it a try this summer.

WEAR A LIFE VEST!

Always wear a PFD when you are in a kayak. Always - even on calm waters

From a press release: “New Hampshire Fish and Game Department divers today recovered the body of 52-year-old Kenneth Fudge, of Derry, N.H., who drowned after overturning his kayak in Lake Massabesic at about 5:00 p.m. yesterday (July 15, 2009). Fudge’s fiancé attempted save him, but he tragically slipped from her arms and sank after she could no longer hold him up. He did not know how to swim and was not wearing a life preserver. Weather was not a factor in the incident.”

There’s a lesson here. Always wear a PFD when you are kayaking, canoeing or boating—even if you can swim like a porpoise.