Shawsheen Pines

Rob Heinze

We put our kayaks in at the easily accessible, secluded canoe launch. From there we went upstream through a burst of autumn color in its prime. I regretted not being a bird watcher because in addition to the usual geese and ducks were some other birds I don't recall seeing before and wondered if they were locals or migrants. Returning downstream, we rounded a bend and were startled by a whitetail deer who came crashing out of the water and pranced off to the shore and into the woods. As we rounded the final bend, we came across a beaver swimming in circles in the river just before the I93 bridge. As the current carried us down, the beaver swam to the opposite side of the stream and let us pass. When we swung our boats around to go back for another look, the critter obviously had enough of us, slapped its tail and went under water. I gave this a 4 star rating rather than a 5 only because it's so close to the interstate highway and the sound of traffic is pretty annoying until you get a good distance away.

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