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| Heading out |
I’ve been paddling regularly for the past ten years, and its nice that there are still plenty of new trips for me to do. I was able to do one yesterday – Great
Swamp in the towns of West Kingstown and Richmond in Rhode Island’s South
County.
Great Swamp is one of the classic Rhode Island paddling
trips. In his book Canoeing Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, Ken Weber described it as “perhaps
the most intriguing canoe trip in the state” and “an excursion into jungle like
retreats that cannot be reached any other way”. It sure sounds interesting.
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| Through the swamp grass |
Henry D. has been running the Great Swamp trip for RICKA for
years, but it is always run in the spring when I have visions of whitewater dancing
in my head. This year, I decided it was time, and that was definitely the right
decision. The trip doesn’t have any
rapids, but it has everything else – beautiful scenery, lots of challenging twists
and turns to maneuver through, and an open water crossing on a wind-blown lake.
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| Crossing Worden Pond |
We put-in on the Chipuxet River at
Taylor’s Landing, and headed south through the Great Swamp Management
Area. At times, shrubs and swamp
grass almost overgrew the river.
Fortunately, with the higher water levels, we were able to paddle
through without too much difficulty. The higher water also allowed us to float over the frequent beaver dams
along the way.
As we approached Worden Pond, we could
see a strong wind from the south kicking up small whitecaps on this large,
shallow lake. We hung to the north shore as we headed out into the waves. After passing Stony Point, we headed
for the site of an old seaplane hanger on the northwest corner of the lake,
which is an easy place to stop for lunch. We then headed south past Case Point to resume our trip down
the river.
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| Great Swamp Impound |
From here, there are some differences
of opinion on the name of this section of river. Many guidebooks refer to
Worden Pond as the source of the Pawcatuck River. In other guides, this is a
continuation of the Chipuxet River, which becomes the Charles River when it
merges with the Usquepaug (Queens) River just above Biscuit City. The Charles
River eventually merges with the Wood River above Burdickville to form the
Pawcatuck River.
Whatever it is called, the river itself
is beautiful. It twists and turns
through a pretty hardwood swamp covered with vines – especially poison ivy,
which grows so lush that I saw leaves as big as my hand drooping down from many
trees. We stopped for a look at the huge impound of the Great Swamp Management
Area, and watched as an Osprey brought a fish back to its nest high atop the
power lines.
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| Approaching Biscuit City Landing |
Shortly after the convergence of the
Chipuxet and Usqupaug Rivers to form the Charles, we turned right up the small
channel that leads to the Biscuit City Landing. It was a 7-mile trip that took us about 4 hours to run. I definitely made the right decision on
this one.
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| That's me enjoying a great day on the river |
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