I think of the South Shore as being a fairly crowded place. Nice...but crowded. But every now and then you find yourself in some pretty wild places. Monday was one of those days. With all of our plans to remove the Wapping Road Dam, the next big question is: so what will fish encounter once they can get up there? It's been along time (at least 85 years) since any anadromous fish swam past Wapping Road. Division of Marine Fisheries (and the rest of us) were very interested in having a first hand look at the condition of the river above the dam. Obstructions, rapid changes in elevation, loss of channel definition, and other factors could have serious impacts on the ability of fish to make it upstream....and the success of our restoration efforts.
So, only one way to find out. The day started out much colder and much rainier than the forecasters predicted. So after suiting up in scavenged raincoats and trash bags we jumped in the canoe to conduct our first headwater spawning habitat assessment of 2009. (Maybe more about these assessments in another post some day).
The lake work was uneventful...and then we headed into the wilds of the Jones River. It was only a matter of minutes before Brad (Brad Chase DMF) and I lost Pine in the jungle. We headed back to the truck thinking she had too. No luck. So we dove back into the woods. After about 15 minutes we started to hear more splashing and breaking branches than what we were doing ourselves. So in knee deep mud we reconnected with Pine. At this point it was clear that we had no intentions of stopping. So they carried on while I went back to leave a truck at our next intersection about 3/4 of a mile downstream. Once parked I decided to head upstream. The choices were:
1) In the river. Fairly clear sailing except that the soft bottom threatened to turn thigh deep water into neck deep at water at any step.
2) Along the bank. somewhat dryer than the first option but much muddier, much thornier, and way more poison ivy.
3) Along a trail about 60yrds away from the river.
Although option #3 was by far the easiest it kind of missed the point. So I opted for a combination of 1 and 2.
With phone, watch, and GPS buried deep in pockets under my coat and waders I had no idea how much time had passed when I finally heard Brad and Pine Picking their way downstream. I stopped and hid quietly behind a tree hoping to scare them as they got closer. Instead, I starting looking around at all the water and woods and spooked myself. I kept thinking "I'm glad I'm not doing this in Alaska". That was right about the time I heard Brad say to Pine "I'm glad I'm not doing this in Florida."
More to come in Part 2
