Saturday, October 29, 2011

Pre-Storm SuAsCo Maneuvers

It seemed everywhere I looked, this morning, folks were preparing for, yet another, storm of the century.  Snowplows and sanders were hastily being assembled.  Leaves were being cleared from storm drains.  Supermarket parking lots were busy.
Out on the lower Sudbury River, though, things were rather calm as I approached the Nashawtuc Road Bridge.  Nonetheless, Fleet Command had ordered pre-storm maneuvers and that meant paddling my Twin Otter to new digs for the upcoming winter.  Thoughts of being the only boat out on the river were soon dispelled when I encountered 2 kayakers heading upstream.
Arriving at Egg Rock, the inscription shows a river level more typical of springtime...


Before heading to the Lowell Road takeout, I coudn't resist paddling a short distance on the Assabet River...
   

As a result of trying to prolong my time on the river, a small trash haul was collected from the river's nooks and crannies...


The 32 piece haul brokedown as follows: 10 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 22 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as the 2" thick block of insulation, an old seat cushion PFD, plastic bags, and styrofoam stuff.  YTD total 6034.

Just as I was preparing to leave the river, another boater was launching his Chester Yawl by Chesapeake Light Craft to get in some pre-storm rowing maneuvers of his own.     

Friday, October 28, 2011

Sudbury River - Oxbow Route to Power Lines

Upon launching my boat into the Sudbury River at Little Farms Road in Framingham, late this morning, I noticed the upper entrance to the oxbow had sufficient water to allow passage.  Once I'd entered and began the mile-long passage I couldn't help but think of how "a river used to run through it".  Up until 1957, according to McAdow's The Concord, Sudbury and Assabet Rivers, the Sudbury River took this side trip to the east before resuming its northerly course.  Today, while there is adequate water, there isn't much in the way of flow.  The photo at left attests to just how quiescent this forgotten stretch of river is.  Wood ducks, mallards, and Canada geese were enjoying the solitude.  These tall pines are leaning and may someday fall across the old channel...

When my passage was complete, I rejoined the present-day's river only 100 yards from where I had started.  The much swifter current allowed me to get close to this pair of wood ducks...



Floatable plastic containers had, recently, been on the move and were, now, snagged behind several blowdowns.   My ship's hold was filling at a good rate.
At the point where power lines cross the river in Wayland, a hawk was perched up high and appeared to be checking out the nearby nest...


Here, I turned around and began the trip back upriver to Little Farms where passengers disembarked...


Today's haul of 112 pieces was made-up of 76 recyclable containers (9 redeemable) and 36 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish.   YTD total stands at 6002.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Short Patrol on the Assabet River



With the end of Daylight Saving Time only 11 days away, I felt fortunate to get in a post-work trash patrol on the Assabet River, this afternoon.  In the photo at left, I'm emerging from the shadow of Nashawtuc Hill and approaching the confluence of the Sudbury and Concord Rivers at Egg Rock. 
There was a fair amount of trash in only a 1.5 mile section of river.
Total was 38: 17 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 21 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam, plastic, a spray paint can, and nip bottles.  YTD total = 5890

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sudbury River Patrol and B.F.R.T. Patrol



A layer of mist still shrouded the Sudbury River early this morning as I approached the Nashawtuc Road bridge in Concord.  The sun had risen but would still take a while to rise above the tree tops.  Clamshell Bank, Route 2, and Emerson Hospital were soon basking in the light...

 Martha's Point was looking resplendent...

After a short visit to Brooke Island in Fairhaven Bay, I began my return trip.  On the way, I encountered this hawk taking in the view...

He soon took flight and looked majestic while doing so...

At the South Bridge, an outbound passenger train was crossing over the river...

Only a couple of hours after seeing the train, Mrs. Trashpaddler and I were pedalling the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in Chelmsford and Westford.  This time I remembered to bring my camera and was able to get a photo of the Bike Repair Station at Cushing Place (aka Ginger Ale Plaza)...
This is great and the only one I've seen.  The plaque mentions it is the Eagle Scout project of Ryan P. Carr (Troop 77).  Nice job Ryan!

Our 2 trash hauls for the day totaled 48 (20 from my trashpaddling and 28 from our trashpedalling)...



The combined breakdown: 35 recyclable containers (12 redeemable) and 13 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as 6 styrofoam bait tubs, plastic bags, etc.  YTD total = 5852.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Paddling Quinetucket Waters Near Peskeomskut


The place I paddled near today no longer exists in the sense that it once did.  By that I mean that the elements which once gave this place greatness have been so altered as to render it only a shell of its former self.  Once, this was a place of much Manitou in the world of Native Americans.  I’m using my own understanding of the word Manitou to say that here, at this once great waterfall on the Quinetucket River, the power of the Great Spirit could be seen, heard, and harvested in the form of migrating fish.  There were several great waterfalls on New England’s larger rivers, and they all seem to have been gathering spots for diverse groups of Native Americans during the springtime of each year.  They were places of renewal.  Another winter had been survived.  Old friends and acquaintances would be there.  New babies would be introduced.  Marriages would be entered into. There were games, competitions, and trading.  Those tribal members who hadn’t made it through the long winter would be remembered.  These gatherings had been occurring for thousands of years.

All of this would change forever on one fateful day in the year 1676.  On the morning of May 19th there were three Native American villages near the falls.  Two were located upstream, one on each side of the river, and a third was on an island downstream of the falls.  In addition to the usual catching and smoking of fish, there was also planting of corn, beans, and squash.  Because a state of war then existed with the United Colonies the fish and planted crops would be crucial in sustaining the Native American cause.  The previous winter had been most difficult for the Narragansetts who had seen their food supplies destroyed at the Great Swamp Fight/Massacre.  Most of the Native American leaders and warriors of the Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Nipmuc confederation were camped at Wachusett Mountain from where they were conducting raids on surrounding colonial towns.  They were relying on those left at Peskeomskut to be successful in procuring food supplies.

On May 12th, two Colonists who had been held captive at Peskeomskut escaped to Hadley and told colonial authorities that the villages at the falls were lightly guarded by perhaps as few as 60 warriors.  In light of this new intelligence, a council of war was convened and a military expedition under the command of Captain William Turner was authorized.  The force consisted of about 150 mounted men and a few foot soldiers and guides.  Oddly, this expedition also included a chaplain, Reverend Hope Atherton of Hatfield.  From what I can gather, the only goal of the expedition was to launch a surprise attack on the villages and bring about total destruction.  In order to accomplish that goal, the expedition needed to cover approximately 20 miles under the cover of darkness and fiord three rivers without being detected.   With the help of a thunderstorm which sent some Native American sentries to their wigwams, and the continuous noise of the waterfall, they arrived at Peskeomskut at daybreak on the morning of May 19th.  Turner’s force targeted the village on the north side of the river, Wissatinnewag.   (The location of Wissatinnewag can be seen on the far side of the river in the opening photo.)  

Once within the still sleeping village, the soldiers, now on foot, dispersed amongst the wigwams and at the appointed signal began firing at the occupants.  Imagine the terror the Native Americans, most of whom were women and children, experienced waking to the sounds of gunfire within their homes and finding their only escape was jumping into the torrent which would carry them to their deaths on the rocks below the falls.  Soldiers reported more than one hundred bodies dead on the ground and another one hundred and thirty had been sent to their deaths over the falls.  During the slaughter only one Colonist was killed when he was mistaken for an Indian upon emerging from a wigwam.  The Puritan cleric, Increase Mather, would later call this “a great and notable slaughter amongst them” in his 1676 book  A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New-England.  Mather had not taken issue 5 months earlier, in December 1675, when hundreds of Native American women and children were burned to death in their wigwams at the Great Swamp Fight/Massacre.  His and other Puritan clerics lack of condemnation for that massacre may have given men such as Turner the green light for the killing women and children.

Atrocities were committed at Wissatinnewag by some including a Captain Holyoke who is said to have killed three women and two children with his sword, upon finding them hiding at the river’s edge.  No prisoners were taken and no quarter given.

Was this what Reverend Mather meant when he wrote “the professed, pious, and main desire of the Fathers of this Colony; viz. to propagate the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ among these Indians, who in former ages had not heard of his fame and Glory”? 

What about the expedition’s chaplain, Rev. Hope Atherton?  What were his thoughts and actions at the scene?

While performing mop-up operations, a young English captive was found in a wigwam and he told the soldiers that Metacomet (aka King Philip) and 1,000 of his warriors would be arriving shortly.  This intelligence was not well received by this “heroic” band.  In fact, panic swept over the soldiers as it earlier had the Native Americans.  They fell into disarray and began a scattered and unorganized retreat that brings to mind Monty Python’s “run away”, “run away”.  Despite the fact that Metacomet and his forces were many miles away, a smaller force of warriors (perhaps only a few dozen) from the two nearby Native American villages launched a counter-attack and it resulted in the death of Turner and 38 of his men.

Several days later two men would separately wander into the town of Hadley.  One was a young man who managed to get across the river in a canoe and the other was the chaplain Rev. Hope Atherton.  Atherton would later tell his congregation in Hatfield a wild story of his wanderings which included his having attempted to surrender to the Natives only to be turned away.  He also couldn’t explain how he had crossed the river and his accounts were disbelieved by his neighbors.  Afflicted with hallucinations, he died less than 13 months later.   Considering that he was only 29 years old and the father of three young children, it is amazing he was able to live with himself that long!

In the years following this event, there were no large gatherings at Peskeomskut.  The Native Americans were expelled from the area and their many beautiful place names were erased, only to be found in history books: Peskeomskut (Turner’s Falls); Wissatinnewag (village north of the falls); Quinetucket (Connecticut River); Kunckwadchu (Mt. Toby); Wequamps (Mt. Sugarloaf); Squakeag (Northfield); Pauchaug (village in Northfield);  Papacontucksquash (Millers River); Corroheagan (Montague City); Mantehelas (mouth of Deerfield River); Mattampash (Sawmill River); Puckommegan (Green River); Pawcomtuck (Deerfield).

As early as 1796, dams were being built at the falls until nearly all of the river’s flow was diverted to a man-made canal and, today, the once great falls see only a fraction of the river’s flow.  This photo shows the canal at just about full capacity...

The Connecticut River can be seen in the distance behind the canal.  It is at a much lower elevation and flow.

In 1900 a monument was dedicated at Peskeomskut by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association...

(Note: Orange spray-painted question mark may be related to ongoing construction around the monument)
At the dedication ceremony, the final speaker and orator of the day was Ralph M. Stoughton and in his remarks recounting the events he included the following: “There are exceptions in all things but as a whole the Indian was defective both mentally and morally, incapable of the larger instincts of humanity, as inspired by Christian influences.  Amid all the uplifting associations of civilization, the Indian was an Indian still.”

Mr. Stoughton’s racial attitudes, though indicative of the time, were all wrong.  Today, I would much prefer to paddle my boat to the Peskeomskut of old than what his so-called “Christian inspired civilization” replaced it with.

The Town of Montague, which includes the Village of Turners Falls, has on its Web site the following: “In recognition of the tragic nature of the Turners Falls Massacre, the Board of Selectmen and the Town of Montague, as part of its 250th anniversary, joined with representatives of various Native American tribes on May 19, 2004 in a Reconciliation Day ceremony.”

I wonder if they considered changing the name back to Peskeomskut which is believed to mean “at the rock divide”. 

After paddling the area between Barton’s Cove and the French King Bridge, I walked around a bit in Turners Falls.  The Great Falls Discovery Center provides excellent displays of the animals and plants found in and around the river...


I didn’t see the word Peskeomskut though.

However, there was a brochure for a Historic Downtown Walking Tour of Turners Falls and it guided me to a Peskeomskut Park located several blocks from the falls...
   

At daybreak, I had launched into Barton's Cove, just upriver of Peskeomskut, and after watching an eagle fly to the west, I turned to see this preview of the sunrise...
 
Heading upriver against a fairly good current, I eventually reached the French King Bridge...

Here, on the river's east side is the confluence with the Millers River and possibly the spot known as Papacontucksquash...
It reminded me of Egg Rock at Musketaquid.
After paddling up the Millers a short distance, I turned around and enjoyed this view of two bridges over two rivers...

Nearly all of the trash I encountered today was floating amidst the grass in a section of the river called the "Horserace".  The most egregious find was a floating 2.5-gallon plastic container holding 3.5 quarts of used motor oil.  Once back at Barton's Cove the day's haul missed out on a moment in the sun...
There were 24 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 11 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as a can of spray paint and a cooler cover.  My YTD total = 5804

The only gunfire heard on this morning was a volley fired by some duckhunters in the vicinity of Barton's Cove, just after sunrise.  That duckhunters were present was also indicated by a group of duck decoys seen floating in a cove.  I no longer cared about how silly my blaze orange hat and gloves might look.
This merganser, however, didn't appear too concerned...
Belted kingfishers were also going about their business as usual.   

The following sources provided useful information concerning Peskeomskut:

History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.  Vol. 2 1879, Louis H. Everts

History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Vol. 4

Biographies and Legends of the New England Indians, Vol. IV, Leo Bonfanti

Native American Place Names of Massachusetts, R.A. Douglas Lithgow, 1909


Monday, October 17, 2011

Shawsheen River - Little Bit More in Tewksbury

This afternoon's drive home from work was early enough to allow for paddling another small piece of the Shawsheen River in Tewksbury.  Similar to last Wednesday I launched behind the Knights of Columbus building on Route 38.  However this time I headed downstream and found the river to be higher and flowing faster than last week.  The house pictured at left looked as though it may have seen one too many flooding episodes in recent years.  It is located a little upstream of Bridge Street.
I had hoped to make it down to where the power lines cross, but upon reaching the Mill Street bridge, turning around seemed the safer and easier option rather than passing through the box culvert...
Sliding over whatever was in there looked possible but paddling back through may not have been.  A portage would have been the best option but it was getting late in the afternoon.

On the way down to this point I'd seen a red-tailed hawk, several small groups of mallards, and a brief glimpse of a red fox.

Trash encountered was mostly floatable plastic containers snagged behind branches or in backwaters.  My haul for this trip was 36 pieces of trash...
 
There were 28 recyclable containers (10 redeemable) and 8 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, a balloon, and a magic marker.  My YTD total stands at 5769.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Trashpedalling Dilemma on the N.R.R.T.

Mrs. Trashpedaller and I biked from Ayer to East Pepperell on the Nashua River Rail Trail this mid-day and came upon the usual bits of litter along the way.
Our haul, pictured at left, numbered 26 and broke down as 21 recyclable containers (5 redeemable) and 5 miscellaneous rubbish.  YTD = 5733

Shortly after starting out from Ayer, I had noted a bag of plastic litter off to the side of the trail. We decided to take a closer look at it, if still there, when we returned.

Sure enough, it was still there and presented us with a trash pedalling dilemma.  The bag was full of recyclable, but not redeemable, plastic containers.  Someone or perhaps several people had taken the time to collect 156 plastic containers and placed them in 2 bags tied together.  Would they be returning to pick them up?  Had they, perhaps, forgotten these 2 bags?  We hemmed and hawed until finally deciding to place them with our small collection and see that they were recycled.  Hopefully, whoever rounded up this batch won't mind our having assisted in getting them recycled.  Below is a picture of the bags encountered...

Friday, October 14, 2011

Concord River - Lowell Rd. to Davis Hill

This morning, despite gray skies, a nice paddle was to be had on the Concord River between early morning and early afternoon showers.  At the Lowell Road launch site, some recent grading work has been done which greatly improves vehicle access.  After launching, the current soon carried me under the Old North Bridge and I approached Flint's Bridge (Monument St.) pictured at left.  Note the white object seen through the far right portal.  This turned out to be a "party bag" that someone had tossed and it ended up floating in the river...

The bag was open yet still contained 20 empty beer cans.  Just downstream were 2 additional cans from the same party.  Hard to imagine someone being that clueless in our present day and age!

The river realm was all mine today.  No other boaters, fishermen, or duck hunters were seen.

At Saw Mill Brook I paddled upstream to this old structure where water from Punkatasset Hill was being guided to the river...
 
At Davis Hill, the river straightens out for the run towards Route 225.  Fog was hanging tough...
This became my turnaround point and I began heading back upriver.

At Mill Brook I noticed the beaver dam was gone and therefore paddling up the brook to near Concord Lumber was possible....
 
Once back at Lowell Road, the day's haul of trash disembarked...

There were 45 pieces of trash including 37 recyclable containers (25 redeemable) and 8 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam, a plastic bag, a fishing rod, and an errant floating boom.
YTD total = 5707.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Shawsheen River - Tewksbury



Coming home from work early this afternoon afforded me the opportunity to squeeze in a late day paddle on the very serpentine Shawsheen River.  My boat and I entered the river at Main Street (Rt. 38) in Tewksbury behind the Knights of Columbus building.  Upon heading upriver, a mink was encountered just upstream of the Main Street bridge...


I think he felt safe watching me from behind those leaves.  Later, on my return trip, 2 white-tailed deer would be encountered at this same location.

Skies were mostly cloudy with a few glimpses of sun and temperatures were more seasonable for October.

This was my first visit to this section of the river and I found it fairly free of obstacles with this one monolithic exception...

 Just a little further upriver this bridge, at Brown Street, was reached...
where I turned around and began the trip back.

On the way, I reminded the few mallards encountered that duck hunting season has begun.  For me, it'll mean wearing my blaze orange hat and gloves from now on.

Back at Main Street my trash haul for the day gathered-up hullside...

There were 26 recyclable containers (6 redeemable) and 20 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam cups, plastic bags, balloons, and a can of spray paint.  YTD total = 5662.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Assabet River - Egg Rock to Damonmill Dam

Today, yet another beautiful day provided ideal conditions for an ascent of the Assabet River from Egg Rock to Damonmill (pictured at left).  I began my ascent near mid-morning and was surprised to find relatively few boaters on the Assabet, considering it being a holiday.  The journey upstream went smoothly and provided encounters with belted kingfishers, Muscovy ducks, and Canada geese.  The trees are just beginning to show some color...
Once upstream of Concord Junction, things began to get a little more challenging due to some new blowdowns and some relocated older blowdowns. 
I watched as these 3 canoeists deftly threaded their Mad River Explorer through some horizontal trees...


As I approached Rt. 62 in Damondale, I wondered how close to the dam I could make it...
After passing under the bridge I was, first, treated to this view of the mill building...


and then worked a little to get within site of the breached dam...

I turned around here with 65 pieces of trash onboard and began the swift ride downriver.
By the time I passed Egg Rock my trash count was up to 86 pieces and they enjoyed some drying time in the afternoon sun...
Today's load brokedown as follows: 41 recyclable containers (11 redeemable) and 45 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam cups, plastic bags, nip bottles, a light bulb, and what looks like a radiator overflow tank from someone's car.  My YTD total stands at 5616.