Sunday, June 15, 2008

Sudbury River - Rt. 62 to Pantry Brook

Last Wednesday, after the worst of the hot & humid weather had passed, I trash patrolled the Sudbury River up to the mouth of Pantry Brook. Temperatures were still pretty warm in the mid-afternoon sun. My power bar was melting almost as fast as I could eat it.

I paddled upriver at a leisurely pace. Recovered a few pieces of trash near the Sudbury Road bridge, a usual hotspot. While pulling an empty 1-gallon plastic jug from the bushes, a pontoon boat passed by with a group of folks enjoying, what looked like, an English high tea under the shade of the boat's canopy. Soon, I was following their route towards Fairhaven Bay. While they made a wide circle around the bay, I headed for the point where the river enters. There was a faded half moon high in the sky on my left as I crossed the bay.

Soon, I was passing under Lees Bridge and noting that the de-construction of the temporary bridge is in its last stages.

Arriving near the mouth of Pantry Brook, I spent some time in the shade on river right, just downstream of Pantry Brook and looked along the water's edge for interesting stones but came up empty.

The trip back downriver was uneventful until I had passed under the very busy Route 2 bridge at 5:45 pm. As I emerged from the bridge, I saw a doe and her very small fawn standing in the woods about 100 feet downstream of the bridge. My guess is that they were preparing to wade under the bridge. When I slowed to a stop, they quietly dissapeared into the underbrush. All the while, cars were wizzing by at 60 mph a short distance away. Sort of like parallel universes.

At my takeout, I counted 12 empty containers bringing my YTD total to 1186

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