Early Morning on Northeast Creek

Thursday July 25, 2013
Site 730, Narrows Too Campground
Trenton, Maine

 

We stopped Northeast Creek on our way home from our hike yesterday.
The put in looked steep but short and the creek looked beautiful.
We planned an early paddle for today.

 

 

When we arrive at about 6:00 it looks a little different in the early morning light but equally lovely.

 

 

Ruby waits at the small pull out just beyond the bridge along route 3.

 

The creek flows to the bridge at the put in and I suppose you could put in at the same place and go under the bridge out into Frenchmen’s Bay but the flow is heavy enough as it goes under the narrow  opening that I doubt you could get back to take the boats out.  I don’t see any put in on the other side of the bridge into the bay but there is one at Narrows Too should we decide we want to do that.

 

There is only a light movement of the water this morning so paddling is easy although if you stop paddling you will drift back toward the bridge.

The banks of the creek here are lined with deciduous forest.

 

Only a slight ripple mars the reflections.

 

We are hoping we might see river otter or muskrat on the creek.  Early on we are greeted by a group of Canada Geese who don’t seem to care how close we get to them.  They hold their ground and don’t say a word as we paddle by.

 

 

It is quiet and peaceful here on the water in the morning.  We do not see another soul and only one house the entire trip.

 

 

 

Grasses and sedges show up along the bank increasingly and the forest gives way to more open views.

  

 

 

 

Along the way we pass this family of ducks with mom in the lead.

 

 

We paddle along at a leisurely pace as we move further and further away from the bridge.   We can drift some.  The sounds of the traffic disappear.

 

 

 

There is quite a thick cloud cover overhead.

 

 

 

All of the banks of the creek from the bridge to the point where you must turn around are on private land and you are asked not to trespass.  This is the only potential other put in I see on the creek and closer inspection shows no sign that it has ever been used for that purpose.

 

 

 

After perhaps 90 minutes of paddling and floating, I think we have come to the end of the navigable way but then I find a hole in the grasses and we push on through to another opening in the creek.

 

 

David coming out.  You can’t even see the small opening behind him.

 

 

 

The creek is smaller at this point, but on we go.

 

 

 

And smaller.

 

 

 

Until there really is no where to go and turning around is tricky.
No pictures of the turnaround.  I was too busy trying to figure it out.

 

 

But here comes David from inside what feels sort of like a Florida mangrove.

 

 

 

 

This time we are floating with the creek so we paddle even less.  The morning is so perfect, this place is so beautiful, we don’t say a word.  We just experience the serenity.

 

  

 

And then the wind picks up, at our back.  Whoo hoo!

 

For 10 minutes or so we are moving along at a jaunty clip of 1.5-2.2 miles an hour doing absolutely nothing but laughing about it.

 

 

But then of course all good things come to an end and the creek twists and turns around until the wind is coming at us and it is back to paddling.

 

 

We run into our Duck family much further down the creek this time.  The little ones are dipping and diving along the edge and coming up with mud all over them.

 

 

 

 

 

As we move back into the forested area two or three kingfishers fly back and forth across the creek in front of us from tree to tree.  Actually I should be more precise.  These are belted kingfishers.  There are 90 different types of kingfishers in the world but only 3 in North America north of Mexico.  The belted is the most common found near bodies of water from coast to coast.

 

 

I take a lot of partial pictures and empty pictures to get two or three fairly decent ones as the kingfishers careen conspicuously overhead.  It is very unusual that they are not filling the air with their rattling call but rather just moving back and forth back and forth over us and the water below them.  This is the best picture of the lot and the best I’ve ever gotten. 

 

 

We encounter the geese again in the exact same spot as before.  Unlike the ducks, they have not moved along a bit in the nearly four hours we’ve been on the water.

 

Around the bend and there is the bridge opening to the bay and Ruby waiting almost out of sight at the top of the hill.  The noise of the traffic is a rude intrusion on what has been a really wonderful paddle/float on a beautiful morning.

 

    

 

David thinks this calls for a big breakfast and plans to stop at the Log Cabin just a short way from the creek.  But apparently they don’t do breakfast as they are shut up tight.   So we drive on and end up at the Cottage Street Bakery and Restaurant where we sit outside on this lovely 73 degree morning.

 

 

David, as always, studies the menu carefully.

 

I see this sort of thing more and more at restaurants.  No one is talking face to face, they are all on their phones either talking or texting or surfing.   I must say, I find this rather sad.

 

 

But we’re not on our phones.  We’re just enjoying the delicious food and fabulous muffins.  I am SO sorry I didn’t take a picture of the chocolate chip and blueberry muffins we had with our breakfast.  They were bigger than the size of my fist.  You can see about 1/3 of one there on David’s plate small plate.  

While I think the breakfast was a bit on the high side, well truthfully a lot on the high side at $26 with tax and tip, the food was excellent and it was a fitting end to a lovely morning.