Early Morning Kayak

On our last morning at South Branch we had time for one last kayak ride before heading back to Kidney Pond.

The beaver and their kits had been very busy indeed during the night. At intervals all along the steeper sloped sections on the east and on the west side of Lower South Branch Pond they left evidence of a night of wanton vegetable gluttony. Just barely into the water from their runs the bottom of the lake was littered with red and green maple leaves and the tender shoots with their bark stripped off of the branches that once held the colorful leaves. Against the dark brown their litter stood out in sharp relief.

The pond is also a watery mausoleum filled with the remains of the trees and rocks that have been washed into the pond. Branches and trunks of countless thousands of trees are scattered on the brown rocky bottom. In places large pelecypods missing their other half appear amid the detritus. The spatterdock struggles to reproduce in the chilly waters and short growing season. Their green pads, often sporting beaded water drops, are tethered to the bottom by impossible skinny stems. Other aquatic grasses bend along the water’s surface pointing in unison in the direction of the fickle winds. The devilish refraction in front of the bow makes the paddler fear imminent grounding a few feet ahead only to find plenty sufficient draft for safe passage.

The quiet of the morning gives way only to the start of a light but steady north breeze that robs the pond of its mirrored reflection. It is time to point the kayaks into the wind and head back. Breakfast awaits!

We saw this guy on the way back to the campsite, it will turn into a polyphemus moth.

As we departed South Branch Campground we stopped at the South Branch Falls.