Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Sudbury River- Little Farms, Concord St., Stone Bridge


T'was a fine day indeed for a little trashpaddling, being Saint Paddy's Day and all!
Launched at Little Farms Road in Framingham and headed against an impressive current towards Saxonville. The opening photograph shows an MWRA construction project I passed along the way. Work appears to be on hold till the water levels drop. It is located where one of the aquaducts crosses under the river.
With water levels so high there was a bumper crop of trash. In a backwater just after passing under Danforth St., there were about 36 plastic bottles. A good number of them were green in color to honor the day.
Any hopes of getting a photo of the Saxonville water-level gauge were dashed when I reached the Concord Street bridge. Wasn't enough room for even a leprechaun to pass under...

After turning around I found myself looking down this high & wide straightaway section of river...

Looks almost like a race track. For anyone that wonders just how fast a kayak could go on such a straight course, check out this link.
My trip downriver was at a much slower rate of speed. In fact, it was effortless and soon I found myself looking at the old stone bridge with no portals visible...

This became my other turn around point, though it would have been possible to go around the bridge's missing left end. Passing under the "hot dog" bridge, I was able to reach up with my paddle and touch the bottom of the large aquaduct pipe.
Trash recovery kept me busy today and with a full boat I returned to Little Farms and began unloading the day's catch. The gang posed in the sun for this group shot...

Naturally, the green bottles insisted on standing together! The count for the day was 158. The breakdown was: 111 recyclable (39 redeemable) and 47 miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam, plastic bags, nip bottles, etc. YTD total stands at 962. Ain't life grand!

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