My northeast paddling season is suddenly getting busy.  Today I did a couple of small bodies of water, Lake Beseck and Black Pond, both in the Middlefield-Meriden area of Connecticut, about an hour south of Hartford.

Beseck is well populated by houses.  I limited the house pix to just the log cabin.  Most of the other structures were way more upscale.  Beseck did offer some riverfront yard art: a Nessie-wannabe and a plastic alligator.   Black Pond, by contrast, had few houses on it, and thus a bit more wildlife, hence the turtle, cormorant, osprey and swan photos.

These were small areas. We paddled around Lake Beseck twice to get a decent bit of exercise.  I did Black Pond only once, but my fellow paddlers did two circuits.  The day was organized by Tom Ebersold of the Connecticut Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Saturday was a great outing at Mansfield Hollow, east of Hartford just south of the University of Connecticut Campus.  I organized this one for the Paddle Killingly Meetup Group.  We did the north side, which meant going up two rivers a bit, the Fenton and the Mount Hope.  Because the water was high, we got up the Fenton far further than I’ve been able to do in the past.  A log stopped us.   On the Mount Hope, of course, the end point is the waterfall.

Below are some photos from both days:

Sunday, Lake Beseck and Black Pond

Saturday, Mansfield Hollow North