More changes in plans. The original plan was to leave from Shippagan Gully, paddle over to Le Goulet, and then shuttle to the Pokemouche River. Instead we drove over to look at the community of Le Goulet and then drove over to tonight’s campground. We were surprised at Le Goulet to get a good view at a family of foxes. After reserving our sites for the night, we went off to find a starting point on the upper tidal reaches of the Pokemouche. I was surprised to see what appeared to be salmon traps in the river. The bridge at Landry that I had hoped to launch from was pretty poor access; so we kept looking for other possibilities. We ended up stopping at the house of Mr. Landry, above Maltempec. He was happy to let us put the kayak in from his yard, but his response to the offer of a Bible was “I don’t believe that stuff”. Already 82 years old, who knows if he will get another opportunity?
When I got on the water, the wind was dead calm, it was getting hot, and I couldn’t notice any current. Later on though the wind picked up against me to get pretty annoying. The short fetch kept the wind waves from growing much, but my body was really feeling the strain after a full week of paddling. At times, it seemed like I had a current going with me, but it didn’t seem very helpful. And I had to be careful to keep going around the dozen or so fish traps that would sometimes jut out halfway across the river. Some stretches of the river had lots of homes/cottages to pray for, while others were nothing but forest.
The Vances got to the campground shortly before me. After some lunch and relaxation, I was looking at trying to paddle from Le Goulet back to the campground at Pokemouche. Since my fingers were swelling, much of the area to paddle was uninhabited, and I was just really needing a break, I decided to quit paddling for the day. We all loaded up to unwind a bit at the Aquarium in Shippagan. It was a good break and a chance to learn the name of some the critters hiding out underneath me. The boys really enjoyed the seals of course. Afterwards, we went out to eat at a family restaurant in Caraquet. Meanwhile the weather again changed from warm and sunny to foggy and quite cool. But at least it never developed into any more than a slight drizzle/mist of rain. I had a nice visit at the campground with a kayaking guide (Kevin) out of Val-Comeau, who grew up in Wilson Point. I gave him a tract and told him to look me up if he ever gets around to doing the paddling trip he wants to do in Louisiana.
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