Monday, March 16, 2015

Felt Like Opening Day

Finally, conditions close to normal allowed me to be out on the river rather than worrying about ice dams, snow, cold, and wind...and it felt great! Awesome!  Fantastic!  The way life should be!
Instead of the smell of hot dogs and peanuts and the sound of bat hitting ball, I had my paddle sweeping through the water and a hot cocoa seventh-inning break near the "Grey Monster" (photo left) in Saxonville.  No home runs were launched over the wall. 


Of course many boat launches were checked before one was found that had both open water and reasonable access to it.  Surmounting this snow bank...
 ...gave me entry to a wide-open Sudbury River in Framingham...

Surprisingly there were no ice shelves and the river was open to both banks.

Water level was ideal and my boat and I passed through the Stone Bridge's left portal for the first time (if memory serves correctly)...


...usually it's blocked by debris and I paddle around the end.

I wondered if there'd be any trash and found some that had wintered over...
The usual culprits (plastic bottles, plastic bags, and Styrofoam) were joined by a fire extinguisher and snowboogie board by WHAM-O.

2 comments:

BERNIE said...

Beware the Ides of March. Hopefully the snowboard rider is not buried under the snow or fish fodder under the river.

Happy spring, or late winter as we call it in Vermont.

Al said...

Thanks Bernie, I'll be wary of those Ides.
The name on the snowboogie board described the winter we've experienced in the Greater Boston area perfectly...WHAM-O!