When an unsuccessful adventure is still a success just by doing it

 

Post adventure Wood Frog

On Tuesday I went on a river exploring mission with my friend Adam. Adam, who lives in Matunuck part of the year, suggested over the winter that we fish the Saugatucket River in Wakefield. His reasoning was the water could be untapped because no one ever fishes upriver of the bike path bridge. I had to agree that this was a good idea and we planned to go this year. 

   We were supposed to go on a whale watch Tuesday but the wind was too strong and the whale watch was cancelled. Adam suggested we go try the Saugatucket exploration. Since it was on my summer " to do list" as was the whale watch, I thought it was a great idea.

   We met at the free parking lot behind the downtown shops. It was very obvious that the weeds would hamper my trolling motor. We decided that even if fishing sucked it was okay because we were both were curious about what was upstream. 

  Unfortunately, not much. Around the first bend the river narrowed to the point where you could still paddle a small kayak but fishing from a two person canoe was impossible. We moved upstream a few more yards and Adam looked at the satellite imaging of the river. It stayed narrow upriver without any openings or small ponds. We really had no choice but to turn around. Adam caught two rainbows from the spring stocking that will surely be dead after the next heat wave. I blanked.

I really wanted to explore this water. Despite not being very productive (or navigable) my curiosity was satisfied. I now know that I never need to  put my canoe in there again. I will no longer wonder "what if?" So in that regard, Tuesday's misadventure was a success. Since it was still early, we went to Trustom. We saw two snakes and a Wood Frog.