Leg 49, from Vinal Falls to the Trotting Park

For twenty six years, ever since we rented a houseboat on Lake Erie, I have been fixated on the little lagoon that forms between this little island and the east shore of Vinal Falls inlet, just off Leo Lane's camp. Every time I drive by and look out there at that spot I remind whoever is with me that I'd like to put a houseboat there. Some have heard that enough. I should just do it.

Walking south I cover a lot of shore that parallels the North Haven Road. It's sometimes a few hundred feet between the two, often much less and has always been thus. Still it's all new to me. I see summer houses I never knew existed. How can that be? Just offshore is Penobscot Island. I think I can walk out there on ice cakes at low tide. I'm looking foreard to it.

It didn't look like Spring underfoot and it wasn't apparent that the snow was doing anything but piling up but it certainly sounded otherwise. This brook and others like it were fully occupied and the primary source was melting snow.

The Boondoggle Culvert invited me to crawl through but I thought better of it, too deep, and went up and over. I shed my vest and hat and left them on the bridge. I'd been struggling to stay upright and, while avoided falling overboard had overheated.

It was easy going out on the Inlet which was nearly empty of water but covered with a fairly level field of ice. I walked comfortably, hatless and without a coat even though it was way below freezing.








These streams, draining the wetland between the Trotting Park and Carver's Pond, were as busy as the one's I'd come across in the woods but all the action was under the ice.

The great Boondoggle orchestrated by the Corps of Engineers
has swallowed up a lot of shoreland. Healthy trees that once were a barrier between homes on Vinal Cove Inlet and the water are now skeletal sticks. Still, some argue persuasively that the goal of re-creating an environment where a good exchange of water tiwce has made for better conditions overall.


Next Let, #50, from the Trotting park to Penobscot Island.