Through the Gates of Hell

[JohnHuth]

I did a circumnavigation of Georgetown Island last weekend with Dan Carr - Fiddler's Reach, down the Kennebec, up the Sheepscot, through Lower and Upper Hell Gate - great trip. Rather than repeat it, here a link with the route, and the report:

http://artofwayfinding.blogspot.com/2013/08/through-gates-of-hell.html

[bob budd]

As regards the weasel-otter debate the weasel is more like a squirrel in size while a river otter is much larger, topping out above 3 ft. The sea otter I saw at the north end of the big sur ran with its long body either in a vertical hump or a horizontal arc, then moving not unlike a snake on the beach. In either case land travel appeared a bit uncomfortable. Not sure if river otters are quite as long having only seen one in the Ipswich river reservation but the rolling on the back thing is definitely otter. A delightful story you've told here, thanks.

[gyork]

John, it was not clear to me from your blog where you were in the tide cycle going through the 2 gates. Were you at near-slack flood?

gary

[JohnHuth]

Gary -

It was on the ebb as far as Bath was concerned. Low tide in Bath was around 16:00, and we went through Lower Hell Gate around 10:30-11 or so, and Upper Hell Gate around 11:30-12. So, past high tide, but not really into what I imagine would be full ebb current. What's a little harder to figure out is what the tide cycle is for Hockomock Bay, as this is intermediate, and I don't know how long it takes for the Kennebec to drain.

Dan told me that the Kennebec is tidal up to Augusta, where there's maybe 1 ft of tide - that's a lot of volume of water.

John