Onboard a "River of Dreams"
Connecticut River to Long Island Sound by Dugout Canoe
by Chris Brunson
CCM Photography
Note: The Connecticut River is the longest river in New England. It flows 400 miles from its beginnings near Canada through four states to Long Island Sound. The lower 60 miles of its length are free flowing. More than 2 million people reside within the river's watershed.
It started out as a big old cottonwood tree that drifted downriver on the Connecticut River from its roots on Wilcox Island to bump against the Middletown, Conn., docks.
From there it could've been just another load of firewood or hauled off to a landfill. But an idea was born - what a project it would be to make a dugout canoe from this massive tree - and what a way to engage a group of at-risk young men, who live in a halfway house run by Community Solutions Inc., a private nonprofit criminal justice agency in Windsor, Conn.
Using tobacco smoke as a blessing for the river journey, Charlie "Two Bears" Strickland of the Mohegan Cultural Center, calls to "mother river."
Crazy? Maybe. But when you have paddled on your knees in a canoe you helped create, no one can take away the sense of accomplishment (or blisters!) when you have completed a trip few would dare try in a canoe.
Led by mentors including George Frick of Durham, president of the "Friends of the River" non-profit group, and Ron Klattenberg, a city councilman of Middletown, the young men have spent the last six months using primitive tools to hollow and carve out a dugout canoe.
A celebration launched the canoe at Harbor Park in Middletown, Conn., midway on the Connecticut River from Long Island Sound to the state border.
This week they paddled that canoe, escorted by police boats and support boaters, across the roiling waters of Long Island Sound from Old Saybrook to Greenport, Long Island, New York.
When the trip is completed, the canoe is expected to be donated to the Meigs Point Nature Center at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Connecticut.
The lessons learned on the river? The young men get to keep those, they earned them with their minds and backs and muscles.
Resources:
For a comprehensive overview of New England's largest river visit www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/ where Professor Ed Klekowski, Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, lists all sorts of information about the river.
The Connecticut River Watershed Council, an advocate for conserving and protecting the entire Connecticut River and organizes an annual Source to Sea Cleanup, set for Sept. 30, 2006. Contact Chelsea Reiff Gwyther, executive director at cgwyther@ctriver.org, or call (413) 772-2020.
For more information about the river activities centered at Middletown, or the "Friends of the River" efforts, call Klattenberg's office at (860) 347-6400.
The project was filmed by CPTV, which plans to air the documentary later in 2006. Visit www.cpbi.org or call the station for more information.
