My Water Roots

"Eden of the Kennebec, - perhaps the Eden of Maine" were the words author and historian Justin H. Smith used to describe the section of the Kennebec River between Norridgewock Falls and Caratunk Falls.  I came across his intriguing (to me) description in his 1903 book Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec.  Smith's description combined with my desire to see first-hand the Native American petroglyphs on "Indian Rock" in Embden had me looking for a boat launch and campground along that stretch of river.  Luckily I found both at the Evergreens Campground in Solon, ME... ... where this sign lets visitors know just how long folks have been setting up camp there... Evergreens' location is ideal being right on the Kennebec's eastern shore, about a mile below Caratunk Falls.  It's almost directly opposite from the petroglyph site and, according to the owners, some of Benedict Arnold's 1100-man expedition also camped here on their wa...

Found time moving at a slow pace on the Millers River in Orange, MA yesterday.   Content with poking into every backwater and stream such as the one pictured above where beavers built a barricade.  One benefit of moving so slow was noticing things often missed such as this eastern kingbird nestled in atop eggs... At the entrance to a slough was this "moccasin flower" (aka pink lady's-slipper)... It was one of three such plants on a slope only a few feet from the river. Being on the Millers River brings to mind the slogan "Miller Time" and when this freight train slowly rumbled along... ...it was clearly "train time". On the opposite side of the river "train time" meant something all together different for this paddler... At the parking lot from where I launched, a pick-up truck was sporting a decal bearing the expression "masshole" while this empty beer can plucked from the river took a different perspective... ...

Last Friday I found myself on the Nashua River admiring the work of some long ago stonemason and wondering to what purpose the above pictured arrangement of stones might have been put to use. I 'd launched from the boat launch near the Bill Ashe Visitor Center in Devens and paddled upriver on a beautiful afternoon... Along the way I encountered this spike deer... ...and a ghoulish-looking remnant of a hornet nest... The stonework was encountered just before reaching the Jackson Road Bridge and is located in Lancaster just over the line from Shirley, on the river's west shore.  The bank here is on the outside of a sweep in the river where it would have eroded if not for the stones... Approaching still closer showed the gaps between stones are providing a riverside-home to this "fishing spider?"... On my return trip downriver I promised myself to investigate the location and, upon doing so, found some possible explanations.  In the book  Hist...