Saturday, June 18, 2016

Northeast Creek - Acadia

Day 5 of unemployment:

On Mount Desert Island, a tidal estuary creek that starts from the mouth of Thomas bay. 

Parking on the side of a busy road, an inauspicious algae launch and the stink of muck.

Complaints and talks of mutiny abound.

I chose the creek cause it was different from the ponds we have been paddling.

The main difference is the water is shallow, murky, teeming with life, and unswimmable.

More complaints and talks of mutiny abound. 

We stay the course and navigate large rocks, thinking the trip will get better (it can't get no worse). 

The water is low with the tide, at some points only nine inches deep.

I picture myself in the worst case scenario: 

With the water level even dropping lower at low tide leaving us stranded in mud. 

We ask a returning kayaker in an inflatable shark watercraft, "how does it end?" 

He says "don't worry, you won't get to the end."

"fuck you," i think to myself "I may look flabby and weak, but never doubt the power of a dragon boat paddler!" 

We paddle nonstop through fierce winds and turns and get to the end, just past the beaver dam where the creek narrows till it can't fit the width of the canoe.

We turn back victorious.

Jumping fish, sunlit reeds, deer hopping in the marsh, water bugs, blowing wind, and sunset reflections.




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