Today Nate and I set out on our unpremeditated kayak trip. Our goal was to set sail at the Pushaw Lake dam where the lake is eventually drains into the Penobscot River, but of course we did not want to take the whole route as it would have been nearly an 8 hour trip, so we would end the voyage at Old Town where Pushaw Stream emptied into Stillwater River.
At noon we arrived to the dam and set out on the water, the weather was perfect for kayaking, mostly cloudy skies with patches of blue and cool breeze. The steam was much bigger than I had thought it would be, with water at the depth of 10-11 feet and widths up to 100 feet, with those measurements there’s very little current to help you along. We saw a fair amount of wildlife, mostly of my favorite reptile, the Turtle. At one of the bends in the stream the water became very shallow and muddy shore was littered with tree stumps, this setting is a particularly favorable habitat for turtles as it provides an area for laying eggs, feeding, mating and basking in the sun. At this point I had considered tipping myself over because I had decided to not bring my camera with me. We let the current move us around in this area so we could observe the Painted Turtles going on about their lives, everywhere you looked you could see them on logs as many as three per log basking in the sun. I was actually able to capture one of them; he was roughly 2 years old and probably has never seen a human before. We counted 20 turtles on the trip, which may seem like a lot, but considering that the trip was almost 10 miles it was minimal. We also saw many Kingfishers, Herons, two Eagles and a dead baby Beaver.
Near the end of our trip our backs and legs very getting soar, so I decided to dock on a very thick clay bank to stretch. As I was stretching I looked down and became curious with the clay and started to play with it, this was a mistake as clay can be very slippery as I soon found out. My entire backside was covered in clay, I smelt like Swampthing. I took my jeans off and paddle the rest of the trip in my boxers. That event was appeased by the next bend that I-95 passed over; I have never been underneath an interstate on water before so it was interesting. I waved at a gang of motorcyclists that acknowledged me. Being under the highway was interesting, I would have thought there’d’ be visible vibration but there was none, the noise was incredible. Ten minutes later we were at the end of our trip which took 5 hours in total.