Joe Dupere
12-09-2004, 03:36 PM
The day after Thanksgiving, while the rest of you (US Americans that is) were sacked out on the couch, overdosed on turkey and football, Glenn and I, your intrepid idiots, took one more occasion to go for a row before cold weather really sets in. The day was overcast, temps in the mid thirties, with a slight breeze when we left Orono.
Across the Penobscot River from Orono, and about 10 miles east, is the sleepy little town of Eddington, ME. In Eddington is Davis Pond, which is roughly roundish, about a mile or so in diameter, and connected to Holbrook Pond by a bog stream that's about a mile and a half long. Holbrook Pond is narrower than Davis , is roughly ell shaped, and is probably about 2 miles long by maybe a half mile wide.
We put in at the only public ramp on Davis pond which was across the lake from the outlet to the connecting stream, which has no name on the map. There are two or three islets in Davis Pond and we headed for the nearest one to land and check it out, but there was a closed up camp on it, no trespassing signs in abundance, so we just rowed around it and then headed across the pond. By this time the wind had picked up considerably and there was a lot of chop. We made good time across the pond, but overshot the outlet stream and had to turn around and row back. It was much harder to row back into the wind and chop, but it got much calmer once we had cleared a point at the opening to the connecting stream. The wind made it pretty nippy and I had to put my gloves on when I was rowing against it, but once we got into the stream and the wind died down, I was able to take them back off.
The stream was very interesting as many of the bog streams around the Orono/Bangor area have proven to be. It was fairly wide, maybe 100 yards or so in some places, and shallow, a few spots the oars would touch bottom, but fairly free of stumps and rocks. We saw a couple of geese which seemed sort of late for the time of year, but there are still some around even today. We also saw a bald eagle fishing.
When we cleared the stream and got to Holbrook Pond, we decided to stop for lunch and scope out what was ahead of us. We beached on a point where we could see up the short leg of the ell and it was pretty choppy as the wind was coming from the west and straight down that section of pond. After we ate, we hugged the north shore which was in the lee of a point, worked our way around the point and then up into a stream coming out of another bog on the west shore of the pond. We might have gone about three hundred yards or so before we had to stop because of a beaver dam. At that point we turned around to head back as I wanted to make sure we got back to the ramp before dark.
Even back in the bog, there was still a bit of a breeze. I could stand up in the Shellback, hold my arms out and act as a sail. I was holding an oar across my body and by changing the angle I could use it as a sort of wind rudder to steer by. Once we got back out to Holbrook Pond, we skirted the north shore again until we could get back into the connector stream. There was a marsh about halfway through with lots of winding channels in it. We spent a bit of time poling around the channels while still working our way back towards Davis Pond. Once back at Davis our original plan had been to hug the lee shore to the west, but the wind had died down almost completely and so we were able to row straight across to the boat ramp.
It was a nice day, although a bit nippy at times. We had hoped to get out one more time and that made for a nice end to the season.
Now all that's left is reading old WB's in front of the woodstove and waiting for ice out in April!!
Joe
[ 12-09-2004, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Joe Dupere ]
Across the Penobscot River from Orono, and about 10 miles east, is the sleepy little town of Eddington, ME. In Eddington is Davis Pond, which is roughly roundish, about a mile or so in diameter, and connected to Holbrook Pond by a bog stream that's about a mile and a half long. Holbrook Pond is narrower than Davis , is roughly ell shaped, and is probably about 2 miles long by maybe a half mile wide.
We put in at the only public ramp on Davis pond which was across the lake from the outlet to the connecting stream, which has no name on the map. There are two or three islets in Davis Pond and we headed for the nearest one to land and check it out, but there was a closed up camp on it, no trespassing signs in abundance, so we just rowed around it and then headed across the pond. By this time the wind had picked up considerably and there was a lot of chop. We made good time across the pond, but overshot the outlet stream and had to turn around and row back. It was much harder to row back into the wind and chop, but it got much calmer once we had cleared a point at the opening to the connecting stream. The wind made it pretty nippy and I had to put my gloves on when I was rowing against it, but once we got into the stream and the wind died down, I was able to take them back off.
The stream was very interesting as many of the bog streams around the Orono/Bangor area have proven to be. It was fairly wide, maybe 100 yards or so in some places, and shallow, a few spots the oars would touch bottom, but fairly free of stumps and rocks. We saw a couple of geese which seemed sort of late for the time of year, but there are still some around even today. We also saw a bald eagle fishing.
When we cleared the stream and got to Holbrook Pond, we decided to stop for lunch and scope out what was ahead of us. We beached on a point where we could see up the short leg of the ell and it was pretty choppy as the wind was coming from the west and straight down that section of pond. After we ate, we hugged the north shore which was in the lee of a point, worked our way around the point and then up into a stream coming out of another bog on the west shore of the pond. We might have gone about three hundred yards or so before we had to stop because of a beaver dam. At that point we turned around to head back as I wanted to make sure we got back to the ramp before dark.
Even back in the bog, there was still a bit of a breeze. I could stand up in the Shellback, hold my arms out and act as a sail. I was holding an oar across my body and by changing the angle I could use it as a sort of wind rudder to steer by. Once we got back out to Holbrook Pond, we skirted the north shore again until we could get back into the connector stream. There was a marsh about halfway through with lots of winding channels in it. We spent a bit of time poling around the channels while still working our way back towards Davis Pond. Once back at Davis our original plan had been to hug the lee shore to the west, but the wind had died down almost completely and so we were able to row straight across to the boat ramp.
It was a nice day, although a bit nippy at times. We had hoped to get out one more time and that made for a nice end to the season.
Now all that's left is reading old WB's in front of the woodstove and waiting for ice out in April!!
Joe
[ 12-09-2004, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Joe Dupere ]