The Bottom

 

Fewer leaves moved over the water today.  Maple predominated again.

I have spent a month posting about the Ottauquechee.  I realized today that I have not described riverbed below the bridge.  I took a closer look at what today's clear water passes over.  At the deepest and swiftest point, off center, toward the left, there lies a tongue of sand stretching into darkness downstream.  Here and there on both sides, double-fisted-sized stones flank that strip of bottom sand.  For a stretch on the left, a narrow slice of smooth ledge lies alongside.   On both sides toward the shores lie washing machine- and refrigerator-sized boulders.  Some of these larger rocks break the surface.  Others cause the very slow boiling effect closer to the right bank just downstream.  Out of the water, at least today, the rocky right bank rises steeply, with retaining walls escalating the height.  The left bank shelves gently away from the river.

I discovered a book yesterday whose riches I will share along with sights and thoughts about the river, Where the Great River Rises: An Atlas of the Connecticut River Watershed in Vermont and New Hampshire.  It lists the Ottauquechee as one of four larger tributaries to the Connecticut in the north country, which "from the air...sparkle in the sun."