Ipswich River Kayak — genghispwn

It’s been a while since our last adventure together, but I think our paddle down the Ipswich River counts…

Using the very helpful IpswichRiver.org maps, we decided to try Trip 5, which is listed as about 4.2 miles, launching from the Wintrop Street/Willowdale Mill Reservation in South Hamilton MA and exiting from Peatfield Street in Ipswich, which helpfully appears in Google Maps as Canoe Landing.

After a traditional Saturday late start, we left one of our cars at the exit point and drove the other car to the launch point and were quickly able to unfold and assemble our Oru Beach kayaks. Because of our late start, we were launching right around high tide at 4:30 PM, but the website said that the paddling downriver takes about 30 min/mile, so we thought we’d be able to get out of the water well before sunset at 8:15.

*Anna meets a pretty chill Great Blue Heron.*

We immediately encountered several Great Blue Herons, who were remarkably chill, leading us perch to perch down the river. They really are strange birds. They seem both elegant and majestic while at the same time also sort of goofy, knobby-kneed, weirdos.

*Note the goofy knees and drumstick thighs.*

As I was turning with my camera to follow one of these majestic creatures, Anna gasped and pointed to where the heron had just been fishing. Through the leaves, we could see a doe checking us out.

All along our route, we saw Cedar Waxwings, the ABA’s Bird of the Year btw ;) socializing above us swooping and fluttering with each other cheep cheeping.

We navigated around a few fallen trees and passed under several charming stone bridges before we finally hit some trouble.

There was a place on the map that said that portage might be required. As you can see below, (with Anna’s permission,) we managed to scootch past the spot without too much trouble. But what we didn’t know was that Ipswich is currently in a drought. So even though it was only about two hours after high tide, we hit a number of patches that required some core strength to power through. In retrospect, we might have had gotten out and waded and dragged a bit to make things a bit easier.

At one point Anna’s kayak did tilt a bit on a rapid and take on a little water; But she was able to get rid of the water without too much fuss using her bilge sponge. The Oru Beach kayaks are not particularly rugged and have an open cockpit, so I do sometimes worry about finding ourselves in rougher conditions as you can’t self-right and if you capsize you would need to get to shore. But so far so good! The foldable kayaks performed admirably, going over plenty of rocks and this was the most trouble we’ve run into in the year and a half we’ve had them, having taken them out at least 15 times.

As we skootched along, the river had a few more surprises for us. Several Belted Kingfishers noisily encouraged us along flying perch to perch in front of us. Boy they make a racket, but I find them very charming!

*A noisy female Belted Kingfisher encourages us along.*

One of the most amazing parts of our paddle was all of the intense smells we experienced as we passed flowers and trees. Very intense and wonderful! Near the end of our trip Anna said “look!” and pointed in front of us at a beaver swimming in front of us. After a moment it SLAPPED its tail against the water to tell us to buzz off and disappeared under the water. After it was gone, we smelled a pungent musky animal scent for several minutes, which must have been the beaver. Very cool!

*Stinky Beaver about to slap his tail against the water to tell us to buzz off!*

It was getting late and we were way behind our planned schedule as we had dawdled at first and then taken a long time to scootch along the shallow sections. After considering bailing and finding a road to walk back to our car if there were any more shallow sections, we decided to power through to the end as the sun was setting. Of course I couldn’t help snapping a few more shots along the way. We steered clear of these guys:

Though we had difficulty for a few minutes finding the exit point, we reached the car just as the sun was slipping behind the horizon. We quickly folded the kayaks up before the mosquitos could get us and drove home for a much needed shower!

In the time of Coronavirus, this little adventure has so far been the highlight of my Summer. Hope you enjoyed the pics!