[Bill Menke’s Journal for Fieldtrip 13I of the QMIII Project, Maine and Quebec, October 4-19, 2013] During this trip, I (Bill Menke) attended the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Section of the Seismological Society of America, performed maintenance on a seismometer in Quebec, and installed and maintained seismometers in Maine.

October 4, 2013. I drove up to Seahaven Cottage in Harpswell Maine to meet Dallas, who had been staying there. The fall foliage along the highway is in full swing and is very beautiful. I arrived about noon on a mild and overcast day. Dallas and I launched two sea kayaks, Hraun (for Dallas) and Lahar (for me), from the end of Route 123 and paddle over to Basin Cover, for exercise. Potts Harbor is calm, although passing lobster boats raise substantial wakes. A few eider ducks are floating around the entrance to the cove. The tide is flowing swiftly out of the cove, making entering it a bit of work. We paddle down to the salt marsh at the end of the cove, where we sight several great blue herons (or maybe the same bird twice). The intensity of the tide has increase by the time we leave the cove, and we shoot down through a short section of rapids and standing waves. I turn Lahar about and paddle up through the flow again, which is quite rather more vigorous than previously. But Lahar is a fast boat, and I am using a racing paddle, so I make steady progress and soon reach the calm water of the cove. I then shoot back out, taking a slightly different route. I catch up with Dallas and we paddle straight back to the launch.

October 5, 2013. Dallas and I drive up to the town of La Malbaie, Quebec, where we are attending the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Section of the Seismological Society of America. We take Route 201 through Jackman Maine, which is more-or-less a straight northward route from Waterville Maine to Quebec City and its bridge over the St. Laurence River. The weather is overcast, and while we enjoy the fall foliage, it is not nearly as spectacular as it would be on a sunny day. We stop briefly at several places along the way:

An overlook and boat launch on Wyman Lake, just off of Route 201 in Moscow Maine. The lake is long and skinny - a dammed section of the Kennebec River. The overlook has a great view of the mountains surrounding the lake;

An overlook and picnic area on a hill along Route 201, south of Jackman, Maine. It has a fantastic view of the countryside to the west, which includes Attean Mountain and Attean Pond.

An overlook on cliff high above the Riviere Chaudiere (river) on Route 173 near the town of Beauceville, Quebec. Vertically-dipping strata are exposed on the river bed, making for an interesting pattern of ledges; and

A boat launch off on the St. Laurence River, of Highway138 near the town of St. Anne du Beaupre, with a nice view of the river and the Laurentian Highlands.

We arrive in the town of La Malbaie at about 7 PM and check into the Auberger Petit Plaisance, a bed and breakfast (B&B), located a mile or so north of the town center. We then take a drive around the town, and especially to Manoir Richelieu, a large hotel located a little south of the town center. We need to arrive promptly at the Manoir early tomorrow morning, for we are joining a fieldtrip that leaves from it.

October 6, 2013; Charlevoix Fieldtrip. Dallas and I are attending the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Eastern Section of the Seismological Society of America, which is being held at the Manoir Richelieu, a large hotel located a little south of the town center of La Malbaie, Quebec. The fieldtrip is a component of the meeting.

The main object of this fieldtrip is to examine the Charlevoix Impact Structure, a large (50 km) diameter meteor crater that dominates the geology of the region, and which stretches from La Malbaie southward to Baie St. Paul, two towns on the west bank of the St. Laurence River. The crater’s age is not well-determined, except that cross-cutting relationships establish that it is post-Ordovician. Its morphology is subdued, owing to about two kilometers of post-impact erosion. The fieldtrip was designed by L. Nadeau, M. Lamontagne, P. Brouillette, J. Locat and S. Castonguay and has an accompanying Field Guide, Earthquakes and Faults of the Charlevoix Impact Structure (whose sites I reference, below).

I arise early in the morning and walk around the neighborhood, in order to see the sunrise. The day is beautifully clear but cold, with frost on car windows. The morning sun paints the buildings a deep red. I return to the B&B for a quick breakfast of hot croissants, topped with homemade jam, and scrambled eggs.

We drive to the Manoir Richelieu and meet a group of thirty or so colleagues who have all signed up for this fieldtrip. After a bit of waiting, chatting, and catching up with old friends, we board a yellow school bus and head off.

Stop 1; Guidebook Site 15. We head south along Highway 362 from La Malbaie (town). We pull into a large parking lot by the Observatoire Astronomique de Charlevoix, an astronomical observatory (and a nearby golf course). It is on high ground overlooking the St Laurence River and commands a great view of our side of the river and the hills along the river bank. A set of prominent hills to our south represents the central uplift range of the crater; the indentation of La Malbaie (bay), north of us, represents the northern intersection with the St Laurence River forms La Malbaie (bay); its southern intersection (which we cannot see) forms Baie St. Paul (bay). The fall foliage is awesome, especially illuminated by the morning sun. We also see the east shore of the St Laurence River in the distance. The far shore is mostly flat country, except for one section with low but prominent hills, which are made of Appalachian limestone (or so we were told).

Stop 2a and 2b, Guidebook Sites 11a,b. We stop at two adjoining road-cuts on the west side of Highway 362 to view Proterozoic gneisses that have been highly fractured by the impact. We see shatter cones, which resemble slickenslides on a conically-curved surface, and impact melt, a fine-grained grey rock occurring in finger-thick dikes intruding the gneiss. I collect a sample of the melt and give it to Dallas.

Stop 3, Guidebook Site 10. We walk down to the shore at Saint Irenee and out onto a ledge at the water’s edge. It composes of a grey Ordovician limestone that has experienced soft-sediment deformation of Appalachian age, such as meter-long folds. The rock contains a few shatter cones, indicating that the deformation is unrelated to – and predates – the impact.

Stop 4, Guidebook Site 9. We descend off the main highway onto a country lane and examine a set of outcrops on the uphill side of the road, where some new houses are being built. Gneiss is exposed behind one house, but further uphill along the road are ledges of white sandstone and grey conglomerate. The conglomerate contains both small-offset faults and shatter cones; I collect one of the latter from a pile of loose rocks beneath an outcrop for teaching purposes.

Stop 5, Guidebook Site 7. We park at a picnic area at Cap Cornielle, cross a train track and hike about a half mile south along the shore. The tide is low, so we can examine limestone pavement that is below the high tide level. It is the same grey Ordovician limestone we have seen previously, but more-or-less flat-lying. We find several beautiful examples of shatter cones, one about a meter long. This area does not show much evidence of soft-sediment deformation, except for a clastic dike that cross-cuts the beds. It contains angular fragments of limestone in a fine-grey limestone matrix. The limestone abruptly ends and more southerly rocks are gneisses. We find the contact, which appears to be a thrust fault, complete with a gangue zone and a drag fold in the limestone. This area is also full of large glacial erratic boulders or various metamorphic rocks, some of which have beautiful banding. The view is spectacular as well, especially to the north, where the land is terminated by a tall sea cliff.

We passes a farm with llamas as we drove south on the main highway.

We had lunch – soup, sandwiches and pie, washed down with coffee - at Camp le Manoir, a collection of historic buildings that includes a church and a mill. The color motif – white with red trim and roofs – make the buildings quite striking, visually. After lunch, I walked down and viewed the little mill pond created by a ten-foot (or so) high dam on a small but rapidly-moving stream. I viewed the exterior of the mill, only, and did not have time to tour its interior.

Stop 6, Guidebook Site 5b. We stopped at a dramatic overlook, just off the main highway, at Les Eboulements. The view of the St Laurence River is great, as is Ile aux Coudres (island of walnuts), mid-river right below us. Logan’s Line, the northern geological boundary of the Appalachians, runs along the bottom of the river, between our side of the mainland and the island. This area was also close to the epicenter of the 1870 magnitude 6 earthquake, which caused two fatalities. The overlook has many wildflowers growing about it. I am surprised that they are still being frequented by honeybees.

Stop 7, Guidebook Site 5a. We drive out onto the pier, the terminal of the ferry that provides service to Ile aux Coudres (island). This land-filled pier reminds me a bit of Piermont Pier in Piermont, New York. We can look back at the west bank of the St Laurence River and see a lowland region that is the debris apron of the huge 1663 landslide.

We stop briefly at the Papeterie St. Guiles, a shop that sells artwork on handmade paper. Dallas buys a small watercolor. I walk around the neighborhood, viewing the boats outside the Musee Maritime de Charlevoix (Maritime Museum), which include two lifeboats, a tugboat and an incomplete wooden boat with brightly-painted ribs, as well as several large buoys. I then walk down to the river’s edge, near the confluence of the St. Laurence with a small stream. I have a nice view of a Spartina marsh.

Stop 8, Guidebook Site 3. We stop briefly at an overlook, just as the main highway turns from south to west into Baie St. Paul (bay). This is the southern intersection of the Annular Trough with the St. Laurence River. The afternoon has become rather overcast and the view, which would be spectacular in clear weather, is merely very nice. We also view the faulted Ordovician sediments exposed on the road cut on the opposite side of the highway.

Stop 9, Guidebook Site 13b. We drive back towards La Malbaie (town) by Highway 138, which follows the Annular Trough on a loop west of the coast. We stop at an overlook at St. Hilarion. We have a panoramic view of the valley created by the Annular Trough, and of the Laurentian Highlands beyond it.

Stop 10, Guidebook Site 13c. Our bus stops at the Discovery Outcrop in St. Hilarion, where shatter cones, definitive evidence of a meteorite impact, were discovered by geologist J. Rondot in 1965. We did not leave the bus, for the day was getting late, but rather simply viewed the outcrop from the windows. A plaque has been placed on the outcrop, with the opening words:

La Signature de L’Impact Meteoritique de Charlevoix, C’est ici, en 1965, que furent identifies par M. Jehan Rondot, geologue les primiers specimens de shattercones …

We then returned to the Manoir Richelieu and attended a reception that had excellent bread, cheese, smoked salmon and, for dessert, chocolate mousse.

October 7, 2013. The day is overcast. I take a break from the meeting in the late afternoon and have a long walk. I first head north from the Manoir Richelieu, taking a pedestrian path that follows the edge of the St. Laurence River. The tide is low, and broad mud flats and sand banks are exposed in La Malbaie (bay). The mud flats are dotted with many glacial erratic boulders and inhabited by many gulls. I walk out onto a little peninsula with a gazebo at its end. It’s a well-landscaped park with flower beds and a kids’ playground. I pass a flock of white geese that are swimming in the river. The hill immediately north of the town center is topped by a large cross. I walked up to it, taking the access road that passes through a cemetery. The hill commands a nice view of town and bay. I then follow the Riviere Malbaie (river) (yet another usage of Malbaie!), taking the minor road, Chemin de la Vallee, that parallels it northern bank. A sign says that the next town, Clermont, is only 5 km away, so I decide to cross the bridge there and then walk back along Highway 138, which follows the southern bank. I have several nice views of the river from the rather high sandy bluffs above its bank, and many excellent views of the farms and rolling hills of the valley. I pass an historic forge and a small suspension bridge, which I guess provides pedestrian access to the other bank. I do not take it; indeed, I do not see how it is accessed. The main bridge proves much more than five kilometers away – more like ten! The river below the bridge is full of rocks and minor rapids. I stand there for a few minutes deciding how I would take them had I been in a canoe. The only path I can find is rather tough, involving too many tight turns, for the water level is low and many rocks are showing. I cut through a pleasant little river-front park, just south of the bridge. I buy coffee at the local Irving gas station, and then walk back along the Highway 138. The traffic is heavy and, while I find some nice views of the river, the overall experience is not especially pleasant. The last section, along the St. Laurence River is much better. The walk takes about five hours, total – much longer than I have planned for.

October 8, 2013. Today is much clearer than yesterday, and the fall foliage is much brighter and more beautiful. I take a short walk mid-morning, first around the grounds of Manoir Richelieu, which is set high on a hillside overlooking the St. Laurence River. The grounds are nicely landscaped, with pretty flower beds, a row of nineteenth century cannons, and several overlooks that afford great view of the St. Laurence River. I watch several large ships sail by. I then walk down a street that descends to the river level, near the train station, past an impressive sea cliff. I walk out onto a breakwater, taking a small suspension bridge that provided pedestrian access to a gazebo at it end. I then walk along the St Laurence River for about a mile, to a point where I have a nice view of La Malbaie (bay). About an hour.

In the late afternoon, I drove to Clermont and then took a minor road, Rue Maisonneuve (road), which followed the south bank of the Malbaie (river). I came to a lake, or rather a dammed section of the river. I made two stops, parking the car on the side of the road and walking around a little. The first was in wide part of the lake near several bushy islands, and across from a hill with steep rock ledges. The second was at a bridge that spanned the river upstream of the lake, buts still in sight of the bushy islands. Both spots were beautiful and had excellent views not only of the lake, but of the adjacent hills, with their fall foliage. About and hour.

October 9, 2013. Dallas and I picked up Fiona Darbyshire from her B&B, Auberge Petit Felix, located near the train station in La Malbaie, at 8:30 AM, and then drove south. It was a beautiful morning and we stopped briefly at the overlook on Route 362 just north of the town of Baie St. Paul and viewed the town and bay, lit up by the morning sun. We then drove south towards Quebec City. We had hoped to stop to view Montmorency Falls, but though we could see it from the highway, we could not find the exit owing to road construction. We crossed the St. Laurence River at Quebec City and then drove back north along Highway 20. This area has beautiful fall foliage, with many orange and red trees, more that in the La Malbaie region, which is dominated by yellows. The highway follows the St Laurence River and offers some nice view of the river and the Laurentian Highlands beyond it. We passed several low hills, the same that we could see as we gazed across the St. Laurence River from La Malbaie. They are indeed made of limestone.

We drove as far as the town of Mt. Carmel and then headed south for about five miles, to a farm where we are operating a seismic station. The station is well behind the farm, on a rock ledge near the edge of a field, on a rise that offers nice view of the surrounding countryside and its many farms. The station was operating fine; we exchanged the memory cards for larger capacity ones that would record through the winter. We then fired up the Coleman stove, made coffee and at sandwiches, sitting on a rock ledge surrounded by pretty vegetation. The farmer came by and Fiona, who is fluent in French, spoke with him for a while. We then packed up and headed back to Quebec City, were we dropped Fiona off that the bus station. Dallas and I then drove back to Harpswell Maine, arriving at Seahaven Cottage at about 10:30 PM. It was a long day.

October 10, 2013. Dallas and I walked from Seahaven Cottage to Potts Point in the morning. The day is sunny, but the air is quite chilly. We pass a road crew that is repairing the erosion-damaged edge of Highway 123 – damage that occurred during a heavy September rain. Many wildflowers, such as the goldenrod, have gone to seed, but the Roadside Aster is still blooming, as are water lilies in the pond opposite Graveyard Head. We stand for a few minutes at the point, watching lobster boats pass.

I then drive north to Wesley Maine. I stop briefly at the Whaleback on Route 9, to view the Union River and its wetlands. The view is beautiful, but the area has fewer trees in the fall foliage than I had hoped. I set up camp at Log Landing, on Machias River Road. I spend an hour assembling one of the plywood boxes that I use for seismometer vaults and then have a dinner of spare ribs and couscous.

I arise once during the night and am treated to a clear and dark sky full of extremely bright stars. The sight is really impressive, much more so than in an urban area. I reflect that pre-industrial peoples must have seen the sky this way on every clear night!

October 11, 2013. The morning is clear and cold, but above freezing. A mist rises from the Machias River. I eat a breakfast of scrambled eggs washed down with Irish Breakfast Tea. I then drive north along Machias River Road, to the land owned by the Downeast Lakes Land Trust, where we have permission to install seismometers. I stop briefly at several beautiful lakes and wetlands along the way. I spend the morning installing a vault at the southern site. It is near the road, which minimizes time needed to carry material, so the installation takes only a couple of hours and I finish before lunch.

I stop at the store in the town of Grand Lake Stream and buy coffee. I meet Laura, an employee of the Land Trust (whose office is opposite the store) and the two of us chat for a few minutes.

I assemble the second vault at the parking area at Dobsis Dam, which provides a better work area than does the roadside by the site. Before starting, I walk across the dam and out onto a little peninsula on its east side, to where I have a good view of the lake - Pocumcus Lake - on the downstream side of the dam. (The lake on the uphill side is called Sysladobsis). Several beaver are swimming in the shallows. They see me when they surface and we watch each other for a few minutes. Then, one suddenly slaps and tail on the water’s surface, making a loud crack, and the group dives.

I spend the afternoon installing the second vault in a clear-cut a couple of hundred yards east of Dobsis Dam Road. The ground is irregular and full of slash, so each trip – and I make five or six – takes five minutes or more. Consequently, this second installation takes much longer than the first, and I am not finished until about 3:30 PM. I return to Grand Lake Stream and buy a few supplies in the store there.

It’s already after 4PM, but I decide to take a brief paddle, so I launch my kayak, Lahar, by the ramp next to the dam in Grand Lake Stream. I paddle a circular course, rounding the nearest pair of islands. The lake shore has some nice fall foliage. I sprint on the outgoing leg but paddle more leisurely on the way back – except for sprinting the last 500 meters. The sun is close to setting as I load my kayak back onto the car.

I drive straight back to Log Landing and cook another sparerib and couscous dinner. I am eating by the light of the moon, which is low in the western sky and itself just a few hours from setting, by the end.

October 12, 2013. The morning is overcast and warmer than yesterday. I drive straight to Bangor, buying a breakfast sandwich and coffee at a gas station convenience store along the way. I shop for supplies at the Lowes and Rite Aide, and then head up to Kelly Storage in Orono to load the two seismic stations. I need a lot of bits and pieces, and spend quite a long time there sorting them out and packing the car. I then drive back, buying a couple of hot dogs for lunch, again at a gas station convenience store. I reach the site I am now calling Land Trust South at about 1 PM. The weather has cleared and the day is now sunny and warm.

I spend the rest of the day assembling the seismometer. It’s working by 4:30 PM, but it takes me another hour to close it up and tidy up the site. I spot a grouse by the side of the road as I drive back. It’s past six and starting to get dark by the time I reach my Log Landing campsite. I eat a dinner of canned beef stew and coffee.

October 13, 2013. The morning is clear and frost coats the ground. I have an omelet and coffee for breakfast. I construct the insulating box for the geophone at the campsite, rather than at the seismometer site, because the picnic table provides a nice workbench. When it’s done, I head north to Grand Lake Stream. The fall foliage is spectacular. I sight a turkey on the side of the road. I make two brief stops: one at Camp Vic, just to make sure that the seismometer there is still working, and another at the store in Grand Lake Stream, for coffee. I then drive over to the seismometer site on Dobsis Dam Road and begin the installation. The site is a few minute’s walk from the road, a walk that I make numerous times as I carry tools and supplies back and forth. The hardest carry are the two deep-discharge marine batteries, each of which weigh in excess of fifty pounds. It takes me until 4PM to complete the installation and to tidy up the site.

I make several brief stops, one at Pocumcus Lake near Elsemore Landing and another at a wetland off of Little River Road. I get my feet wet trying to find a vantage to view the wetland, for it’s bordered by bushes growing in rather swampy soil.

Back at Log Landing, I cook a dinner of chili, which I have with chips.

October 14, 2013. It’s another sunny morning with frost at Log Landing Campsite. I spend about an hour organizing the car, for it has become rather disheveled during the seismometer construction. I then pack up and head over to the Wesley Forest Service garage, where I download the seismometer there. The process takes about two hours, since I have to make a backup copy of the data – just in case. I then start to make my way up towards the Hay Lake seismometer, which also needs servicing.

I stop at a boat launch along the Penobscot River, off of Route 9 in Brewer, Maine, to view the river and the fall foliage on its banks. I also stop in Bangor for supplies and at Kelly Storage in Orono to swap out gear. I then drive north on Interstate 95. The weather deteriorates a bit, with the sky becoming overcast and with occasional light rain. I sight two bald eagles near where the Salmon River crosses the highway, an adult and a juvenile. I arrive at Shin Pond Village at about 4PM and set up camp at Site T10.

October 15, 2013. Today is my fifty-ninth birthday. I spend the day at the seismometer site at Hay Lake. Vadim Levin and I did the installation last year, amid a cloud of black flies. The instrument has worked poorly, with the data logger (a Nanometrics Taurus) shutting down intermittently – and more importantly - failing to restart, for reasons that we have not been able to determine. Indeed, it is not working today, having shut down on September 23, possibly due to low power, and failing to restart when the power came back up. I plan to upgrade the solar panel array and to replace the Taurus with a Reftek 130. The work goes smoothly until the final moment when I try recording data: the data logger cannot see the Trillium geophone. I am surprised, for we had ordered a brand new cable from Nanometrics. It does not seem to work. After an hour or so of futzing around, I decided to replace the whole station with the last of the eight I had received from the PASSCAL consortium, and which I had been holding in reserve for another site.

Unfortunately, the new plan requires a trip down to Bangor for supplies, a drive of several hours. The weather is nice, and while the fall foliage is pretty along the highway, I do not have time for any sightseeing. I think carefully about the vault modifications as I drive; the different sizes of the Trillium and Guralp geophones make them nontrivial. Eventually, I worked out a plan that requires a tall kitchen garbage can and a couple of bags of quick-set concrete. I buy the supplies at Lowes in Bangor and pick up the new equipment at our unit at Kelly Storage in Orono. It’s now 6PM, so I have dinner before I head back, eating a pizza at Angelo’s Pizzeria, on Stillwater Avenue in Old Town, Maine. I arrive back at Shin Pond Village at around 10PM and go right to bed.

October 16, 2013. It’s overcast this morning. I take town my tent and pack up. I have breakfast of scrambled eggs at the Shin Pond Village restaurant and then drive back to Hay Lake. The work of completely rebuilding the seismic station is routine but time consuming. The Nanometrics cable doesn’t work with the PASSCAL data logger, either, so I resign myself to rebuilding the vault so that it will accommodate a Guralp CMG-3T geophone, which is quite a bit taller than the Trillium 120p. I assemble the station and check it out. Thankfully, it’s working fine. Just as I’m finishing up, Forest Service Rangers Owen and Kevin drive up. I have a pleasant conversation with them, and once they’ve left, clean up all the tools and trash scattered about the site and head off.

Hay Lake is on Grand Lake Road, near the North Entrance of Baxter State Park. I decide to drive through the park on my way back to Orono. The distance through the park is no longer than along highway, though slower owing to the 20 m.p.h. speed limit, and the views are nice. I pay my $14 admission at the gate house and drive the Tote Road, stopping briefly at a few sites for the views. I am particularly impressed with the view at Tracy Pond, a small pond just off the Tote Road, which commands a great view of Mt Katahdin. After exiting the park, I stop at the Millinocket House of Pizza, off of Route 11 in Millinocket Maine, for a pizza dinner. I stop at Kelly Storage in Orono Maine to offload gear and then drive straight back to Seahaven Cottage in Harpswell Maine, arriving at 10PM.

October 17, 2013. The seismic installations and all the driving have been quite exhausting. I have decided to spend a couple of days relaxing at Seahaven Cottage. The morning is grey and rather windy. Dallas and I walk down to Potts Point.

I checked up on the Harpswell Maine seismic station, which I installed on my last visit. It is undisturbed and is properly powered up.

By late morning, the skies have cleared and the air has warmed up. Dallas and I launch our kayaks from the Colony Beach, and paddle a loop around Ash Cove. Though the air is warm the water is chilly – 51F. The fall foliage around the margin of the cove is past peak, though still beautiful. The yellow seaweed, which is floating just below the water’s surface along the margins of the cove, is also quite pretty. We sight a kingfisher, a few ducks and numerous cormorants and gulls. Dallas spots a school of small fish jumping from the water’s surface. We paddle as far as the entrance to Basin Cove and then head back, paddling straight across Potts Harbor. Dallas is having trouble steering Hraun, one of the rudder pedals has broken. I strap the rudder into a fixed position, making sort of a skeg, and this repair seems to help.

We are joined for lunch by Ed and Maude Abbott and Ruthie Weeks at the Dolphin Marina. I have a haddock basket. The restaurant is at the end of Basin Point, a beautiful location with a great view of the surrounding bays. I walk over to the beach and gaze out across Middle Bay, towards Whaleboat Island, for a few minutes.

I drive up Route 123 to the food market in the mid-afternoon. On the way back, I stop at a number of places along Route 123 to view the fall foliage. Most are short stops of just a couple of minutes, but one is longer. I park at the Harpswell Town Offices on Mountain Road and walk the Cliff Trail to Cliff Overlook. This spot commands a wonderful view of Long Reach, a narrow arm of the sea. The late afternoon lighting is great and the Reach is very beautiful. The tide is low, and the mud flats are carved by numerous meandering runoff channels.

Dallas and I walk to Ruthie Weeks house in the late evening. The full moon is shining.

October 18, 2013. Rain fell during the night but the morning is clear. Dallas and I walk to Potts Point. The tide is high and washing over the bar, so we have to run between waves from dry patch to dry patch, lest we wet our feet. Potts Harbor is very beautiful in the clear morning air. We stop to admire Ruthie Weeks’ flower garden on the way back to Seahaven Cottage.

In the late morning Dallas and I kayak out of the Auburn Colony beach. We spend a few minutes fixing the rudder peddle on Hraun, using metal reclaimed from an old brass hinge to strengthen the sliding pedal track. We then paddle around Ash Cove and into Basin Cove. The tidal rapids are pretty sedate at the moment we enter, though we have to paddle against a bit of a current. We first loop around the north end of the cove. Someone has placed two plastic herons amid the Spartina grass; they are realistic enough to fool the casual eye. We spot two kingfishers and two great blue herons. I sprint Lahar several times, using moorings as finish lines. We paddle straight back to the Colony Beach, crossing the band of yellow seaweed extending out past the end of Bar Island.

Dallas says that a partial lunar eclipse is predicted to occur tonight. I go outside several times in the early night and view the moon, which is full, but don’t see any signs of an eclipse. Perhaps she has the wrong date?

October 19, 2013. The sky is clear this morning and the air is chilly. Dallas and I walk to Pott’s Point. The tide is lower than yesterday, being an hour earlier in the cycle, and more of the bar is exposed.

In the late morning, Dallas and I kayak in Ash Cove. We paddle into the little tidal channel near the Colomy Beach. Its only navigable for a hundred feet or so, but the Spartina grass make it an interesting place. The footbridge has been washed out. No few than four Great Blue Herons fly away as we approach; I wonder whether they are a family group. Dallas has trouble again with the steering on Hraun; this time the rudder cable has snapped near its connection point with the rudder. We pull ashore and I jury rig a fix using a short length of rope. It will suffice for a while. We complete a circle around the cove and head back, visiting the north end of Bar Island on the way back. The soil on this tiny, low island seems more eroded than the last time I visited it, a few years ago. Back on shore at the Colony Beach, I affect a more permanent repair of the rudder cable.

I leave Seahaven Cottage at about 3PM and drive back to New York. I stop at Brick Oven Pizza at Exit 65 off of Interstate 84 for dinner. I arrive home in Tappan NY at about 9PM.

This has been a long trip – sixteen days!