Goose River Paddle

Yesterday dawned cool and clear and soon warmed up into the 60's!!!!!!! So wonderful after that long winter. In celebration I joined the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition for a paddle on the Goose River, starting in Swanville. For more information about events, please e-mail: cloechunn@yahoo.com.

There were seven boats, eight paddlers and one dog. The river started out moving fast, deep, twisty and narrow. Gradually it widened into a still sleeping beaver swamp with dams that had fortunately not yet been rebuilt, making paddling easier.
A strong headwind countered the helpful current and as the river opened out paddling became quite hard work and the stiff breeze chilled the warm air.





Where the river opened out into a small pond a glimpse of winter returned with a sheet of ice to be paddled around.










A variety of wild ducks, geese, loons and ospreys were seen. Chloe is much more of a bird expert than I and identified several more species.

After 2 hours of hard paddling I was more than ready for the haulout at Smart Road and was delighted that Skip and Cloe had left 2 vehicles and a trailer. We managed to cram boats, people and dog into these (not sure how).

What a wonderful start to my paddling season. yesterday my boat launch on Trues Pond was still surrounded by ice, but could well be open by now.