As I stand on the bank of the Merrimack River in the Millyard, looking for a place to dive (well, given the shallowness of the water, "dive" is probably not the most appropriate term), I'm starting to have second thoughts. The water is murky - very murky, which seems odd. I've scouted this area out before and I really don't remember the water being so dark.
Wait a second… Okay, everything's cool. I forgot I was still wearing my sunglasses.
I scout around a little bit more and discover that somebody has left an old ladder submerged an inch or two under the water, crossing over to a little mini-island a few yards from shore. I cross over, humming circus music to myself as I step from rung to rung. I stumble through a few trees and find myself at some water quiet enough to check out. I find a rock to sit on, remove my shoes and socks and put on my fins. I rinse out my mask, then spit in it and wipe the saliva around to (theoretically) keep the mask from fogging up. Snorting at the irony that my saliva is probably the cleanest water I'm likely to come in contact with today, I ease myself into the water.
Surprising Fact #1 - the water is really warm, very much like a bath. This area is off to the side from the main body of the river and the current is very slow, so the water has a chance to warm up quite a bit before it flows back into the river-proper. Granted, the water has a bit of a low-tide-under-the-wharf smell, but it is remarkably clear and I can't smell it underwater anyway.
Surprising Fact #2 - there is actually a lot of life down here. There is a kind of rock climbing called "bouldering" which essentially says, "Hey, why risk your life climbing giant cliff faces, when you can get the same technical challenge by working your way horizontally across other, lower cliff faces?" Fresh water snorkeling is a lot like that. You don't run into huge, dramatic situations, but if you shift your perceptions a bit, you see a lot of really interesting plants and animals - just on a much smaller scale. Don't go to the Merrimack looking for blue marlin and you won't be disappointed at the lack of blue marlin.
There are at least two different kinds of fish here - big ones and little ones. (Hey, I never claimed to be Jacques Cousteau.) The little ones - about a quarter of an inch long - swarm around in little motorcycle gangs, terrorizing insect larvae and mugging the occasional freshwater crustacean. One of the bigger fish, a respectable nine or ten inch bass (?) (perch? pike? flounder?) swims over to check me out. I get the distinct impression that he isn't so happy to see me. I think he is part of a neighborhood watch program and that he's been assigned to keep an eye on me. Speaking of eyes, skeptical friends have told me to keep an eye out for Simpsons-like three-eyed fish, so I try to count this one's eyes, but he stubbornly stays in profile. I change position and he spins in place to present me with the same side of his face. I have two theories: either he really is an old, grumpy neighborhood watch fish and this is his good eye, or he is horribly scarred or mutated on the other side and doesn't want me staring at his tentacles or whatever. I respect that and move on.
There are several types of seaweed growing on the different rocks and even in an old tire, which seems like a good sign, as does an abundance of tiny clam shells. I see a few freshwater mussels, but not many actual baby clams. They must be here though, because birds or crayfish or tiny little old men with tin buckets have obviously dug them up, eaten them and returned the shells to the bottom of the river.
I don't get a close look at any of the ducks or seagulls, because they are too smart and fast for me and clear out before I can get near them. As I make my way out into the main current of the river, where they sit and make fun of me, I almost get sucked out into main body of the Merrimack, where presumably, I'd be battered against the rocks, then carried, broken and senseless to the sea, somewhere in Connecticut, so I go back to my little tidepool.
In the end, I don't find treasure, or even any human skeletons, but the summer is young and there is a lot more river to check out. I'll keep you posted.
