Monday, March 18, 2024

Lighter All Around

Spent this past week getting re-acquainted with my composite kayak which is 15 pounds lighter than my rotomolded kayak. Made the switch a little earlier than usual as these days I feel each and every pound.  All the better to enjoy our increasing hours of daylight.

Wednesday on the Concord River in Bedford, MA under bright blue skies...

...and Thursday on the Assabet River in Stow, MA under equally cloudless skies...


Wrapped up the week with a Saint Patrick's Day paddle in Concord, MA under changeable skies and a kicked-up breeze in the vicinity of Egg Rock...


Water levels on the local rivers were back up and almost allowed me to paddle into Brewster's Canoe House alongside the Concord River...


On Sunday the Egg Rock inscription was completely submerged.  However, a short distance away on the Assabet another rock showed two lines from George Bradford Bartlett's poem Floating Hearts...

 

Other notable sightings during the week were this eagle on the Assabet...

Common mergansers on the Assabet...

...and a Styrofoam F-35 aircraft from the lower Sudbury...


Trash from the Concord on Wednesday included 22 "nip bottles"...

Trash from the Assabet on Thursday included 15 "nip bottles" and a plastic dolphin...

Trash from St. Patrick's Day on bits of the Assabet and Sudbury rivers included 43 "nip bottles" and a wee bit of green...

My favorite Irish saying...May the road rise to meet you.


Monday, March 11, 2024

Last Standard Time Paddle

 

Got out only once this past week...a mid-day paddle on the Nashua River from Petapawag in Groton, MA. 

Heading downriver I passed by an eagle nest at an ideal location.  Status of nest unknown.


Went down to where the river opens up in the approach to the dam at East Pepperell...


Trash, most of which was found snagged at the Route 111/119 bridge included another 45 "nip" bottles.


As I write this we've entered Daylight Saving Time...meaning we made it through another winter...perhaps one of the easiest winters I can recall!  While sitting by my rarely needed stove these past months I read of Samuel Champlain, his mentor Sieur de Monts, and company deciding in 1604 to spend their first North American winter upon a small island in a tidal river near the Bay of Fundy.  Their decision ultimately proved disastrous when a long, snowy, and brutally cold winter befell them.  There were 79 men at the beginning of winter and only 44 survived to see the spring.  Most of the deaths were due to scurvy which wasn't fully understood at that time.  In reading The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Three Volumes translated by Charles P. Otis, edited by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, I found Champlain's account regarding the fateful choice of their first settlement location: "Vessels could pass up the river only at the mercy of the cannon on this island, and we deemed the location the most advantageous, not only on account of its situation and good soil, but also on account of the intercourse which we proposed with the savages of these coasts and of the interior, as we should be in the midst of them."  However, due to ice flows in the river the island became more of a prison than a safe place to winter-over.  The following June Champlain wrote "On the 17th of the month, Sieur de Monts decided to go in quest of a place better adapted for an abode, and with a better temperature than our own."  Thus the island settlement was a one and done and I'm left to wonder who was  the "we" who deemed the location "most advantageous"?    Sieur de Monts?, Champlain?, or both?  My curiosity is stoked to see this island. 

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Changes Afloat and Afoot

 


This past week showcased the many changes beginning to take place along our local rivers.  On Tuesday a Sudbury River paddle from Egg Rock to Fairhaven Bay was undertaken under bright sunny skies with temperatures near 60 degrees F.  Real spring-like warmth was felt for a change.

The inscription at Egg Rock (opening photo) stood clean and dry for the first time in quite awhile as water levels have returned to something approaching normal.  Evidence of the previously higher levels included this macabre reminder of winter's unforgiving nature...

Hard to tell what kind of critter it is.

The South Bridge Boat House was looking good...

Reached Fairhaven Bay and found it almost entirely ice-free...
...except for the slough leading into the Lincoln Canoe Launch which was still iced over...

Across the river was this reminder that sugar maple sap is beginning to flow...

A colorful assortment of boats await their owners...


Yesterday on the Nashua River in Harvard, MA I happily welcomed the month of March and the arrival of meteorological spring...
...though temperatures felt more like late February than March.

Post paddle and while strapping down my boat a train horn was heard to the south.  It preceded the arrival of CSX Train 426 enroute to Portland, ME seen crossing the Nashua River...

 The train would pull to a stop at the Still River Depot Road crossing...
..for a change of crew.



Trash from the Sudbury River was light on Tuesday...

...but changed to a bit heavier plastic content from the Nashua River on Friday...
...with 45 miniature bottles (aka "nips") front and center.





Saturday, February 24, 2024

Heard Spring Was Approaching

 

On President's Day I joined with fellow year-round paddlers for some Sudbury River paddling in Wayland, MA.  In the photo above Oz and Roger are seen re-entering the river following a side trip into Heard Pond.  Back on the river...



Thursday provided an opportunity to venture out onto the Assabet River in Stow, MA where I found the eagle nest occupied by an adult eagle (hopefully sitting upon an egg or two)...

The eagle's mate was seen perched a few trees over...


A third adult eagle would later be seen about a mile downriver from the nest...


Also saw a blue heron, more red-winged blackbirds, hooded and common mergansers, wood ducks, mallards, kingfishers, and this red-tailed hawk...



Fort Meadow Brook sports a new bridge perhaps related to the Central Mass. power line/bike trail project...


It appears someone is staging some items removed from the river.  Not being sure of their future intentions, it was left alone...

Monday's trash from the Sudbury...



Thursday's from the Assabet...


The most wintry looking spot I saw all week...

Considering all the birdsong in the air on Thursday either spring has sprung or my hearing aids were affected by the day's solar flare-ups.


Monday, February 19, 2024

The Overhyped Storm That Whiffed

 


This past Monday I took advantage of relatively pleasant conditions to sneak in a paddle on the eve of a much ballyhooed snowstorm.  The storm had been in the news for the previous four days, and in my opinion had cast a pall over these otherwise beautiful mid-February days.  Instead of enjoying the decent weather at hand many folks were busy getting ice-melt, snow shovels, bread, and milk.   

So as I paddled the Assabet River up to Damonmill in West Concord, MA I wondered how drastically different things would look under a foot of snow...


Trash was light (perhaps in hiding from the snow)...


By the way, the big storm did arrive on Tuesday and left a whopping 1.5" of wet snow in my area.  My hope is that meteorologists will, in the future, focus more on the weather at hand rather than on the possibility of a storm four days out (end of my rant).  Oh, and just to be clear, I never mind a missed snowstorm, especially this close to the start of meteorological spring. 

Monday, February 12, 2024

A Preview of Spring

 

The latter part of this past week provided a welcome preview of springtime.  Thursday offered temperatures around 45 degrees F. with light winds.  The Nashua River in Harvard, MA had both the look and feel of spring (photo above).
  
A small tributary was briskly moving past a beaver-built structure to reach the river...


Evidence of just how high the river had been is this purple orb...
...seemingly suspended in mid-air.

Re-visited the very efficient natural trash trap downstream of the Oxbow NWR boat launch...

Later came upon a freight train parked on the bridge and alongside the river...

The train's head end was stopped where the Still River Depot once stood...

...perhaps awaiting a new crew for the rest of the trip to northern Maine.  Brings to mind the old Roger Miller's hobo song "King of the Road".  In particular, the lyrics "Third boxcar, midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine....I'm a man of means by no means King of the Road."

Mount Wachusett silently watched over all of this activity...


Trash from the Nashua included 70 miniature bottles (aka "nips")...



Two days later, on Saturday, when the thermometer would flirt with 60 degrees F., I paddled to Egg Rock and vicinity in Concord, MA...

...where water levels continue to gradually fall and now expose a good portion of the inscription.

Unlike the Nashua, trees along the lower Assabet are mostly deciduous...

Saw what I believe to be my first red-winged blackbird of the year...


Two other kayakers were seen on the Concord River...

The high water levels of late look to have led a few boats astray:
This one on the lower Sudbury River...
...and this one on the Concord River just downstream of Monument Street...


Trash from the area's waters (Assabet/Concord) included 19 miniature bottles (aka "nips")...

Unfortunately, cold temperatures, wind, and snow are predicted to return tomorrow.  Glad to have had the brief peek.