Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Inland Paddling, Whitbourne

With a forecast for SW winds blowing 40-70 km/h and 10mm of rain, me and Trent decided it was time for the inland paddle that I was planning all winter. There are a series of ponds that are connected by rivers near my house in Whitbourne, that looked like it might make a nice evening paddle sometime. With the winds as they were, and me being way to wimpy to get out on the ocean in those conditions, we hit the fresh water yesterday evening around 7pm. We planned to start on hodge river as it leads into Beothunes Pond, and end up back at the town council building on Junction Pond, which used to be the old train station. The paddle was about 6kms and took about 1.5 hrs so we got back to the car not too long before dark. Even with the conditions it was a really fun paddle, with 3 short river runs. We saw a few beavers, a bald eagle, and several loons. A highlight was having to jump a beaver damn that blocked the entrance from one pond to another. They are industrious little creatures. It was absolutely pouring rain most of the time so a lot of my pictures came out really blurry, but here are a few that came out ok.



Rock over London, Rock on Chicago

Brian

Map from Google Earth of our route

Launching on Hodge River

Going down the river

Out on Beothunes Pond

On another small brook


A beaver lodge

The beaver dam, it was about a foot high

Narrows between second pond and Junction Pond

On Junction Pond, looking at Whitbourne

Trent with the old hospital in the background

Heading toward the car with the wind at our back

Another fun paddle!

Old CN Train station and train, now the town council building


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great trip report.
Also, thanks for reminding me of the late great Wesley Willis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Willis

Alison Dyer said...

Brian,
well inland paddling may not be as exhilarating as ocean paddling - but given weather conditions I'm impressed you ventured forth. Besides, there's so much still to be seen as you note on your blog. Good on ya! A

Brian Newhook said...

Yes Wesley is one of my personal favorites.