We woke up to rain on day three of our journey, but made the most of it, enjoying a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon and tea thanks to Seth's exquisite backcountry cooking skills, and even invented a new food: Fitness bread cooked in bacon grease! We disliked the rain at first until we realized how shallow the beginning of the Satucket River was at the north end of Robbins Pond, and saw that the rain was actually helping us by raising the water level. The first item of note once we had set out was, somewhat ominously, an abandoned boat --- and soon enough we felt like abandoning our canoe when the river broadened out into a shallow, muddy meadow. Even with the addition of a night of rainwater, we had to get out and drag the canoe, contending with deep mud that seemed like quick sand at times.
Just before a small, wooden footbridge, however, we were able to get back in our vessel and forge ahead, ducking carefully to avoid the poison ivy that seemed to reach out towards us from the left-hand side of the underpass. After the bridge, the Satucket finally becomes deeper and opens up into a verdant, secret river world, hidden by pristine green forestland. The river meanders through a floodplain covered with Sensitive Fern and other wetland plants along with beautiful White Swamp Oaks.
We followed the winding path of the river, having to portage a good deal around the many downed logs, and even found moose tracks. We passed the Washington Street and Bridge Street bridges, after which the river becomes shallower and straighter, without the floodplain corridor of before, and followed the Satucket to the Carver Cotton Gin Mill at Rt. 106.
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