The Enfield Rapids to King Island

5.1 miles from the Connecticut state line to King Island
Total for day was 16.3 miles

I felt alert but fairly calm as I passed under the bridge which was the starting point for the portage around the old Enfield dam. I was river left and committed to running it. It surprised me that I barely noticed the breached dam as I paddled past. I wondered why anyone would choose to portage this.

My relief at getting past the dam was short lived. I was now in the Enfield Rapids. Very large rocks covered with vegetative matter took up most of the river. I tried to paddle my way through them but kept getting hung up on the rocks. By using my hands and paddle I was able to push myself free without having to get out of my boat. I breathed a sigh of relief when I reached a point seven tenths of a mile past the breached dam and the river seemed calmer. In higher water those rapids would have been fun. In this low water they had been a chore.

When I heard the sound of white water ahead I was a bit surprised. Even at the dam the river had been running too slow for it to make any noise. I thought I had survived the worse. But the sound of swiftly moving water alerted me to the fact that I might be in for a challenge. If I had been less sleep deprived and not physically hurting I might have made better decisions about how to navigate it. As it was, at first I made some careless mistakes that almost had disastrous consequences.

My phone app said nothing about this section of the river that made it seem alarming. My paper map mentioned the remains of a wing dam. Wing dams are barriers built to deflect current. They don’t go across the entire river. If I had been more careful and spent more time with the paper map I would have known to move way over to river right. However my app and people on social media said stay river left so that is what I did.

I navigated Jenny through a few rocky sections. I saw a definite drop ahead but it looked navigable. I pulled Jenny back, realigned her and aimed for a spot between the rocks that looked like the best route through.

As I got closer I saw that the way I had chosen had obstacles below. I tried to change course and paddle back up river but in this heavily laden boat with a pulled side muscle I could not fight the current. I found myself in the unenviable situation of being pulled backwards over the ledge. I had a fleeting thought that I stupidly gotten myself into a really dangerous situation. I felt I was watching myself in the seconds before a major disaster that I knew was coming and would not end well.

Luckily the water was really shallow. Rather than pushing me over this old wing dam the stern of my boat got hung up on it. The water was moving fast enough that it pushed me sideways. I had averted the first possible disaster by not going backwards over the ledge, but I was now in the dangerous position of being stuck sideways on a rock ledge in moving water. Granted it was not moving with too much power, nor was it very deep, but it was stronger than I could paddle against. One wrong move and I could go sideways over a drop that looked to be at least a foot-and-a-half.

I purposely got myself more stuck to the ledge and took time to evaluate the situation. The ledge extended behind me as far as I could see. The only possible runnable way through the obstruction lay in front of me. It involved a breach in the ledge and included running a course through two standing waves. I thought if I could align Jenny just right, I could run those waves. I reminded myself that I had run stuff like that many times.

I sat stuck on that ledge hoping it would hold me while I psyched myself up to run the breach. I kept telling myself I could do it. But I also reminded myself that I was not in my white water boat and I did not know for sure that Jenny would push through the standing waves. I did not want to get caught and held in them. Standing waves are formed when water drops over an obstacle that then causes the water to curl and run back upriver. These waves can hold a person in one place. I also did not know what obstacles were under that water causing those waves. Was it just rock or was it chunks of metal like what lay below the wave on the left bank?

Two people were swimming in the water below the wave. When they saw me they stopped swimming and started staring at me. I had a brief moment of relief thinking they would come help me. But when they never made eye contact with me I acknowledged they were staring to see what would happen to me but had no intention of helping. Getting out of this mess would be up to me.

I wanted to align Jenny and run that wave. I also did not want to run it. I just wanted to be out of there. I needed time to think. I thought I saw a path in the water shallow enough for me to make it to shore. I wasn’t sure what would happen once I got out of my boat but as dangerous as that can be in moving water I decided it was my best option. I tied my bowline to two points on my boat to give me more control. Jenny would be less able to swing around and tip this way. Tentatively I removed my spray skirt and tried to get out.

It was difficult to get footing on that uneven ledge. I knew I had to keep a really firm grip on Jenny. Once my weight was out of her she would probably rise up high enough to no longer be stuck to the ledge. I did not know if I had the strength to hold her back if the current wanted to push her over the ledge.

Getting out of my boat is sometimes difficult for my aging body. Doing it with a pulled side muscle made it even harder. When the water is up to my knees it is harder yet. I scrabbled to get my upriver foot planted solidly while trying to hold the boat. It was shallower on the downriver side but I did not want to be below the boat if she started to wash over the ledge. I knew what I was doing was dangerous but I did not have the luxury to be scared. I had to stay hyper focused if this was going to go in my favor.

I did manage to get to a standing position and was relieved to be able to hold Jenny against the current. I was more relieved to make it to shore. I noticed that once I made it to shore the swimmers lost interest and packed up to leave. I tried not to think they were just being voyeuristic and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they had waited until I looked safe before leaving. To be honest I doubted this, but still I tried to think that way. Part of me wished I could have impressed them by running that wave. Thankfully I was smart enough to put safety over any desire to impress.

There was not much of a walkable shoreline. The land rose to a cliff once the river reached the bank. I managed to find a tree leaning out from the cliff that I could tie Jenny to it. I triple checked my knots before leaving her in that moving water. Then I walked down river stumbling on the slippery, uneven rocks. I stood and accessed the wave and decided I did not want to run it. There was just enough room off to the side for me to line Jenny down. It would mean taking her in and out of the water a few times and dragging her on some ledge, but I was confident I could do it. It felt safer to me than trying to run that unknown wave by myself in a fully loaded recreational boat.

The rest is a bit anti climatic. I managed to line her downriver, falling twice on the wet rocks and grunting as I pulled her up onto the ledge. I stopped a few times to chart the best way through. I was relaxed enough to take a few pictures of the wave as I walked past along the shore. I had to navigate some old metal sticking out of the river but finally I got to some quieter water below the drop. I got back in Jenny and set off once again. As is often the case, once I felt I was out of danger, the reality of what I had just done hit me. I could tell I was feeling a bit traumatized.

There were still a fair amount of rapids ahead of me. They were nowhere near as scary as the ledge but in my semi traumatized state I had a hard time enjoying them. The water was shallow and I kept getting stuck on the large rocks. If the water had been deep enough I could have run right over them. But being shallow completely changed the situation and did not necessarily make it less dangerous. It is easy to forget that shallow water can be as dangerous as deeper, faster moving water.

Finally I arrived at King Island where I was to spend the night. I maneuvered Jenny through the shallows which were filled with floating brown globs making me think of the sewage spills. I sat in the boat onshore for a bit, trying to recenter myself and get the strength to unpack her and carry everything up the bank to the campsite.