Further up the Sheepscot the northern end of the Back River forks off to the right, and marks the entrance to an extremely cool area called Ovens Mouth. While the Back River will bend around to the right (or south), continuing left as the passage narrows takes you through what they call the “Oven Mouth”, a very narrow little passage where the current runs strong with the tidal changes. We went through on a favorable current of about three or four knots, and I would not have wanted to meet another boat coming the other way.
Once through the Oven Mouth, a wide anchorage opens up that could easily hold 10 boats or more. There’s a nice little 13’ hump in the middle of the anchorage where we were able to drop the hook to limit the scope necessary. There’s an excellent preserve on the south shore of the passage, and we found truly outstanding hiking there. The only downside was that there isn’t a good place to tie the dinghy without dealing with mud, so it’s best to plan your time on shore to span low tide, half the time with the tide falling then the other half with the tide rising, bringing you back to the dinghy at (theoretically) about the same water level as when you left the dinghy. Obviously this can be done at high tide as well, and actually at high tide can be less messy walking to and from the dinghy.
This little “split the tide” trick is one that we use a lot in Maine, where the tidal range is always in the double digits, and dragging the dinghy out through the mud, or swimming out to it, is something we like to avoid if possible.
