Kayaking the Mashpee River

We kayaked the Mash­pee River the other day with a close friend, and knew we’d found a small piece of par­adise.

Thanks to a cen­tury of con­ser­va­tion efforts, this Cape Cod river remains unusu­ally pris­tine. It offers abun­dant bird life and many vis­tas for kayak­ers and nature lovers to enjoy.

Once your kayak has passed the vaca­tion homes and moor­ing fields, ten min­utes or so beyond Pirate’s Cove, the shore­lines are unde­vel­oped — no houses to be seen until you return to Pirate’s Cove.

You will see wet­lands and wood­lands that remain quite untouched — much as they used to appear to Wampanoag tribe mem­bers, the orig­i­nal natives of this region. (His­tory buffs will remem­ber that the Pil­grims encoun­tered many Wampanoag Indi­ans dur­ing their early years in the Mass­a­chu­setts Bay Colony, includ­ing famous chiefs such as Squanto and Mas­sas­oit.)

The Mash­pee River cuts through tribal lands, marshes and wood­lands pro­tected by con­ser­va­tion­ists since 1915. Sea-run brook trout spawn here. We saw crabs swim­ming past us.

This tidal river is a spe­cial place to kayak because of the way it moves through a vari­ety of ecosys­tems. From the kayak­er’s POV your pad­dle takes you from salt water to brack­ish water and finally to clear fresh water at the river’s head (not far from Route 28 and Quinaquis­set Ave.) And then back down the river again to Pirate’s Cove, and the winds and waves of Pop­pones­set Bay.

Dur­ing the two hours we kayaked this river, we saw many birds, includ­ing:

• Osprey
• Bald eagles — although com­mon to our Seat­tle home, this was our first sight­ing of bald eagles in Mass­a­chu­setts
• Green herons
• Great blue herons
• Great egrets and snowy egrets
• King­fish­ers
• Sea gulls
• Red-winged black­birds
• Robins
• Crows

It is a tidal river, and sum­mer winds here can be strong. Expe­ri­enced kayak­ers should antic­i­pate a one-hour expe­di­tion — and more likely two hours, if you stop to enjoy the bird life or lis­ten to the wind sough­ing through the marsh grass.

Pack enough water or snacks — there are no ameni­ties along this river, other than what nature pro­vides. And leave noth­ing behind, so the river remains clean for future kayak­ers and nature lovers to enjoy.