The Forks Campground to Brown Bridge Dam
Nine of us (Lois Goldstein, John Heiam, Roger Lougheed, Marv and Marlene Puska, Jocelyn Trepte , Fred and Judy Swartz, Tracie Lord) put in at the Forks Campground and had a peaceful, at times chilly, paddle to Brown Bridge Dam. We were delighted to be on this lovely stretch of the Boardman and felt lucky to have such a great river so close by. Aside from a young man fishing from the bank, we saw no one else during this trip.
Although we had expected a sunny day, we had very little sun, cool temperatures, and, as we approached Brown Bridge Pond, there was a substantial increase in wind. The point at which the river empties into the pond continues to be a bit treacherous due to low water, and few of us crossed it without going aground. While Judy and Jocelyn had to walk only briefly, and were able to do this on sand, Marlene and Lois had a long, messy, muddy slog and got to the take out late and in a less than cheerful frame of mind.
Fred entertained us all with his otter launches and “creative” strategies for exiting a kayak. These launches and exits had a lot of potential for interesting action photos, preferably of a very wet Fred, but they were, unfortunately, quite successful. We can only hope that future paddles will provide us with other opportunities to see Fred get very wet. Of particular interest was his strange forward slither and sideways roll that allowed him to exit the kayak at the dock unassisted.
We found a bit of trash although this stretch of the river had been cleaned recently. Perhaps the most interesting was a fully inflated plastic float in the form of an arm chair.
Written by Judy Swartz