Monday, September 30, 2019

Pawcatuck River Overnight - September 28-29, 2019

Putting-in below the Alton Dam
I put in below the Alton Dam, and paddled down the Wood River to the bootleg campsite at the convergence with the Pawcatuck River. I thought I would be the first to arrive, but when I got there I found the RICKA crew already there and busy setting up camp.

Each year the RICKA Wilderness group does an overnight trip on the Pawcatuck to give members a chance to experience “wilderness” paddling in an easy setting. I did my first “wilderness” trip with RICKA back in 2012, and I've been hooked ever since. This year we had 10 folks on the trip including 6 newbies.

The tents are set up
The rest of the group met at the Jay Cronin Access in Richmond at around 10:30 for the paddle down to the campsite. That was a little early for me, so I put-in at around 2:00 below the Alton Dam. The group was well along setting up camp by the time I arrived, so I started gathering firewood for the evening fire. Before long we had a large pile that looked like it would last through the evening, with plenty left-over for the morning. 

After gathering wood (a sweaty job), I set up my tent and got cleaned up for the evening. When Bill arrived about 5:00 we got the fire started and enjoyed appetizers until around 6:30 when dinner (spaghetti and meatballs) was ready.  After that, we sat around the fire until around 10:00 when the last of us called it a night.

The crew ready to leave Sunday morning
I woke up at around 5:00 but didn’t get out of the tent until around 6:30 in order not to disturb others who might still be sleeping.  As it turned out, almost everyone was awake anyway. I started the coffee and the fire (in that order), and then started cooking breakfast – potato, onion, pepper, sausage and cheese frittata in the dutch oven. Some of the group took a hike over to see the osprey nest after breakfast (no osprey in residence), but I started breaking camp.

We go on the water for the trip down to Bradford at around 10:30. The river was low, but Bill and I were still able to do a relatively fluid run through the broken dam at Burdickville.  From there it is a short paddle down to Bradford.  Fun trip.


Camping on the Pawcatuck River from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

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