There are still some small rivers and creeks in Prince County that I haven’t explored. I started to reduce that list this summer by visiting the Pierre-Jacques Rivers, the Kildare River estuary, and the Brooks River. The Brooks River is near Poplar Grove and flows out to the Conway Narrows at Milligans Wharf. For this first trip to the Brooks River, I launched my kayak at the bridge off SW Road on the Southwest Creek. From the bridge, it’s about a 1 km paddle to the Brooks River.
| Brooks River & SW Creek (WD12, 5 km) |
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| Toporama view |
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For the outbound paddle, I followed the east shore and went to check out the rock dam that blocks the channel to Mt Misery Road and the wetland. It’s hard to believe that this dam would pass an environmental review! The other things of note for the Southwest Creek are the oyster farms and numerous eel traps. From the dam, I paddled into the Brooks River and checked out Milligans Wharf from a distance.
| Southwest River |
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| American Eel trap |
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One of the first things I noticed once I started paddling upriver toward Conway Cove was a Bald Eagle circling. Once I got into Conway Cove, the eagle had settled on a tree and it let me get pretty close before flying off – so, I got fairly good photos for a change!
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Cooperative Bald Eagle |
After the Bald Eagle photo shoot, I started heading back. On the way, I noticed a nice public launch point at the end of Wharf Road. I’ll be making use of this launch point next time, and I will also reserve more time to fully explore the other 2 – 3 km of the Brooks River.
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Milligans Wharf
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SW Creek (south of SW Road)
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Outing on June 13, 2023.
Here's the iNaturalist link for the day. Click HERE.
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Brooks River paddle track, 13Jun2023 (6.5 km) |
On June 13, 2023, I made another paddle outing on the Brooks River (near Poplar Grove). This year, I started from the end of Wharf Road (off Brooks Rd). This is a great easy kayak launch (i.e. LP1). From Wharf Road, I went up the Brooks River all the way to the end, including spending some time exploring the large unnamed side creek - upstream from the Southwest Rd bridge.
ReplyDeleteNo photos of Bald Eagles like last year, but they were around. I did observe some nice EWP trees, a few Jack Pines, and one big English Oak tree.