Mascoma

Jimmy and I paddled yesterday. Strainers are everywhere, but all passable. However, the long left channel that starts just above the beaver pond is hopelessly blocked. Takeout, now upstream of the water works on left, has a rather steep climb-out. One must hike across a river bridge on the rail trail to exit. Alden Bird, in Let it Rain, says there is no permission to park alongside the rail trail below the old mill, but his description of a portage river left of the dam is invalid, for the takeout is now fenced off by the water works. If you positioned a cart, you could walk, carry or drag 1/2 mile back to the covered bridge parking area., I have run the dam off a jump platform far right, just left of a barrier rock below, but a friend's paddling hobby ended when he got carried along the boil line until he was spit out at the far left end.