8 Miles to Barton Cove

I kept reminding myself that one side of the river was no longer NH and the other VT. It was all Mass. I found it interesting to think of all of the communities down here which are separated by the river. Somehow when they were in different states it did not feel so strange to think of the river separating the towns.

This again had me pondering the value of a good bridge. Metaphorically bridges have been so important to me as I have needed people to help me build them in order to reclaim the parts of myself which were cut off due to childhood abuse. As I passed the remains of some old bridges I thought of all the people I have once connected with who are no longer in my life. Just like the remains of these now defunct bridges those people have left some lasting marks. Sometimes it feels like debris left in the river of my life. Many of these now unbridged foundations have small trees growing on top. I try to use this image to see what new growth I can garner from the broken connections in my life.

I passed by the confluence of the Passumpsic and CT Rivers. This area has been a long time crossroads for native Abenaki, leading north to VT’s Northeast Kingdom and the St Lawrence Region. I also passed through French King Gorge and was in a 250-million-year-old geological fault which created the CT River. The rock on one bank was tens of millions of years older than the rock on the other bank. (https://www.amherst.edu/museums/naturalhistory/education/community-connections/connecticut-river-valley/rocks-and-more—geology-highlights/french-king-bridge) I took time to take pictures of the French King Bridge which in 1932 was named by the American Institute of Steel Construction to be the most beautiful steel bridge in the country.

All of this had me thinking about changes. Everything is in constant flux and change is the only real constant. A human life is nothing compared to the age of these rocks. Yet in the span of one short life a person can do much harm or can leave behind a legacy of kindness. Even small kindnesses matter more than one might ever know, for they can have an impact on someone that ripples out into the world, eventually leading to some large, positive breakthrough in life. It is similar to what I have heard called the “butterfly effect” in which the ripple of enough butterfly wings could theoretically lead to a large-scale global event such as a tsunami.

I felt I was dealing with my own tsunamis when many of the motor boats went by, waving beer cans at me and laughing as the waves rolled over my boat. Many of these wakes were tall enough to form white caps. When I got stuck into the mindset of “They “should” slow down” I felt annoyed. Not liking the feeling of annoyance, I played with it to see how I could turn it around. I realized I could instead acknowledge that the wakes were not harming me and were sometimes fun to ride over. I could still be disturbed that so many people were so unaware of or were choosing to be inconsiderate to non-motorized boats. But I felt a difference between being disturbed by someone’s behavior and being annoyed at someone. The former felt more productive while the later felt more judgmental and negative.

In general I was having trouble pushing these last few miles. But finally I pulled into Barton Cove where I was greeted by a number of mute swans. These huge birds can weigh up to twenty six pounds and have a wing span of almost eight feet. They really were magnificent as they swam around the shallow waters in the cove.

Finally I reached the take out and connected with my good friend Bix. She would take me to my car in Hanover. I would then resupply and drive my car with my eBike on it to the Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook CT. After riding my bike back to my boat in Turners Falls I would once again resume my paddling journey to the sea. I was ready for a break, though I knew that trying to catch up on writing and figuring out the rest of the details for this trip in just a day and a half would hardly be a rest. I was exhausted just thinking about it. But for the time being I was just going to focus on spending some quality time with my very special long-time friend.