Messin' About in Canoes - last of the 2022 season...
A bit of drama and beautiful skies characterized the last paddle of our “Messin’ About in Canoes” series for 2022.
The plan was to paddle around Country Pond in Newton/Kingston NH. I had scouted the pond the prior week and noted that the parking appeared to be limited to one side of a short section of Country Pond Road - there was no parking on the ramp, the other side of the road and the nearest off street parking was marked for residents only.
On the evening of the paddle we showed up and had unloaded our boats when one of the local residents explained that the entire street was resident only parking. We checked in with the local police who confirmed that the entire stretch of Country Pond Road was designated for resident parking. After a brief chat they were kind enough to allow us to park at the town park (also resident only) for this paddle, but made it clear (in a nice way) that this was a one time thing. We loaded up, drove to the park and unloaded again. The move put us close to northeast corner where the pond drains into the Powwow river. We headed over to check it out.
The Powwow River heads northeast and travels about 2.5 miles to feed into Powwow Pond on it’s way to the Merrimack via Lake Attitash and Lake Gardner. Along the way to Powwow Pond it’s joined by water from Great Pond. You can see the width of its flood plan pretty clearly in this Google Earth view . You can also see pretty clearly how narrow it is now. It’s about 2.5 miles paddling between Country Pond and Powwow Pond
There’s a small flow controller where the pond meets the river, just under a small road bridge. The controller has a short concrete shoulders on each side connected by a couple of 2”x6” planks stacked on their edge and into slots on each end of the shoulders. They sit an inch or so below the surface. The water was maybe 18” deep on the pond side, a bit more on the river side. It was a pretty simple task to either step over (Chris and I) or run the bow up, shift weight and paddle over (Michael).
Once over the controller we headed downriver. There was a reasonably clear flow path through the water lilies and other vegetation for most of the distance we went, though there were a couple of spots where we were pushing through them. Given our delayed start and the gradually shortening evening hours, we didn’t travel far, but did manage to spot a muskrat.
The real stars of the evening were the cloud scapes, which were absolutely spectacular, whether looking at them directly or taking pictures of the reflections in the smooth black water of the Powwow.
We headed back over the controller and then turned northwest to paddle around the substantial island that’s located in Country Pond. It’s interesting that the island, which is privately owned (no trespassing), is in Kingston, while the eastern shore is in Newton. Saw a spectacular sunset as we rounded the first corner.
Back at the town park, we reloaded for the second time, then headed out. A really pleasant evening on the water.
Final note: Given the parking situation at Country Pond, you’ll have to put in either at Great Pond or Powwow Pond and paddle up to Country Pond if you want to access that water. The neighbors are protective of their resident parking rights, so strongly recommend not trying to park by the Country Pond state ramp (you can launch there).