Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Paddling a Parched Sudbury

This past Monday's paddling of the Sudbury River in Wayland saw my boat's hull scraping bottom more than ever before.  I'd launched at River Road with plans for paddling upriver to Indian Point.  At Pelham Island Road Bridge beavers have built a dam beneath the bridge that spans all but 2 feet of the channel...just enough room to squeeze through.  Once past the Greenway I encountered a river reduced to little more than a trickle behind Wayland High School (opening photo), and did a lot of pulling and sliding to reach Indian Point.  Continuing past the point brought me to another beaver dam located beyond Heard Pond...
The dam's construction includes an automobile tire/wheel...
...which left me to wonder if it was the beaver's doing!

The exposed sections of river bottom attracted many killdeer such as this guy...

This freshwater mussel had been left out to dry...
...while his neighbors had a little more time...



A marsh hawk was seen not far from River Road...

Found this plastic fire hydrant in the exposed mud...
...as well as this other debris...

Hopefully the rains predicted for this week will remedy the situation, though I hate to see one of the longest stretches of great weather I can recall come to an end.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Dropping into Chaubunagungamaug

This past Saturday morning when returning from Connecticut I decided to drop into Lake Chaubunagungamaug upon re-entering Massachusetts.  Lake Chaubunagungamaug is one of the largest natural great ponds in Massachusetts being around 1400 acres in size, and is a place I've often thought about visiting.  Chaubunagungamaug is a Native American name believed to mean "fishing place at the boundary".  The lake may have been the boundary between the Nipmuck, Narragansett, Pequot, and Mohegan territories.  The Nipmuck Indians of Chaubunagungamaugg remain a strong presence in the area and are recognized by the state of Massachusetts.

Since this was my first visit to the lake, and on the spur of the moment, I needed to first find a public boat launch for gaining access.  Looking around it didn't take long to realize that the locals use an even longer name than the one shown in the opening photo (from an 1892 map)...

Here's the long version as it appears over the entrance road to the town-owned boat launch facilities at Memorial Beach...
The boat launch itself is good sized with ample parking and, appropriately enough, was busy with fishermen launching/landing their power boats.  Being off season the entrance fee ($ 30 +) wasn't being collected.  Therefore services such as restrooms were not available.  I'd later discover there's a state boat launch at the lake's south end which can be used free of charge.

Once on the water I explored the northern end of the lake while gauging the effect of a northeast breeze.  Eventually I rounded the tip of Killdeer Island (peninsula nowadays) and came upon Indian Ranch...
...which in addition to being a venue for live entertainment is also home to the Indian Princess paddle wheel cruise boat which once plied the waters of the Mississippi...
Here again that much longer name appeared on the boat's side...
This article explains the history of the two native American names as well as the lake itself.

I would encounter the Princess several times while out on the lake that morning...



It was a beauty of a day with a definite feel of fall in the air.

Goat Island was one of the lake's more scenic islands...

I went down lake as far as Point Pleasant before heading back to Memorial Beach.

Most of the trash I encountered was in the area north and east of Memorial Beach...
 
 
A very nice body of water worth experiencing by boat (especially during the off season).

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Another Piece of the Connecticut

Drove down to Connecticut on Friday morning and rendezvoused with my friend Capt'n Dangerous who'd ventured down from the Adirondack region of the Empire State.  Our plan was to explore the section of the Connecticut River between the East Haddam Swing Bridge (at left) and the mouth of North Cove in Essex.

While leaving a vehicle at our intended takeout, Bushnell Park, in Essex we encountered a fellow who'd just completed a 25-day, approximately 370-mile canoe trip down the Connecticut starting from Canaan, VT on the US/Canada border.  Matt, who hails from Poultney, VT, reported having great weather for his journey with only one rainy night.  He also described having dealt with several long and difficult portages around the many dams on the river.  I believe he said the toughest was the portage at Turners Falls where assistance from the power company failed to materialize.  Here's Matt with his canoe and storage system of numbered and watertight 5-gallon pails...
Congratulations Matt.

Interestingly, all of us were using the same guidebook The Connecticut River Boating Guide Source to Sea put together by the Connecticut River Watershed Council.


Following our vehicle shuttle, the Captain and I launched about 10 miles upriver from a sandy shore off Lumber Yard Road in East Haddam and traveled down the river's east side.   Along the way we checked out the shallow Chapman Pond...


 ...where the first of many osprey were seen...

Back on the river, below the hulking Gillette Castle...

the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry was busy carrying folks and cars across Rt. 148...
...where a ferry has operated continuously since 1768.

In this same area the Becky Thatcher Riverboat was plowing its way upriver...
It operates out of Deep River on the Connecticut's west side.  Also heard operating on that side of the river was the whistling and chugging of the Essex Valley Railroad's steam locomotive.

In Whalebone Creek this blue heron just landed a good-sized meal...


Near Selden Neck, the Connecticut's largest island, we saw the water ahead boiling with baitfish leaping from their pursuer's mouths...
Some were reduced to bits and pieces...

Seeing this activity, some fly-fishermen motored in...

In following Selden Creek down the east side of Selden Neck, several dead fish such as this one were seen...
Not sure what type of fish.  Possibly menhaden?

At any rate the osprey, herons, and great egrets seemed to be in heaven.

This section of the river has no shortage of sandy spots for taking a break...



Before reaching our takeout, we passed under these cliffs...
...and ventured about half a mile up the scenic Eightmile River...

The only trash I encountered on this stretch was one empty water bottle on Selden Neck and one empty aluminum can at the takeout.

After reaching the takeout at Bushnell Park and following the shuttle back to East Haddam we started the planning process for another section.  The captain then headed to New York while I elected  to camp at Markham Meadows Campground in nearby East Hampton.  My plans for Saturday following a good night's rest included dropping my boat into the Massachusetts lake bearing the longest Native American name I've ever seen.  

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Squannacook Junction and Nissitissit Ice

This past Sunday morning it was just a spot on a map that for some reason I decided to experience first hand.  Specifically it's the spot in Groton, Massachusetts where freight trains carrying ice cut from Muscatanipus Pond in Brookline, New Hampshire would have left the Brookline and Pepperell Branch and passed onto the Fitchburg Railroad's Peterborough and Shirley Branch en route to Ayer Junction.  At Ayer the trains would head east on the Fitchburg Division main line to the Fresh Pond Ice Company's terminal in Somerville, Ma.
According to the Cambridge Chronicle's 1905 Industrial and Building Edition the company used a dedicated fleet of 75 freight cars, each car capable of carrying approximately 25 tons of ice.  Twenty freight cars were loaded each day during the summer months and the train would travel by night to Somerville where the ice blocks would be transloaded from the rail cars so that 50 horse-drawn wagons such as this could then ply the streets of Cambridge and Somerville the following morning.
  
Squannacook Junction served trains from 1892 until it was discontinued in 1942.  However, before it could be discontinued the Boston and Maine Railroad needed to build a bridge across the Nashua River in Pepperell in order to serve the mills on the west side of the river previously accessed via the Brookline and Pepperell Branch.  The ice trains had stopped running in the late 1930s.  Much of the roadbed between Squannacook Junction and Brookline, NH remains today, although the rails and crossties were removed during World war II.

At any rate, Squannacook Junction not only served to connect train tracks, but also connected some great sounding Native American place names such as Squannacook River, Squannacook Hill, Nashua River, Nissitissit River, Muscatanipus Pond, and Muscatanipus Hill.

So, in honor of the recent good news concerning the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe finally getting approval from the federal government to place some of their land into a trust, I figured paddling up the Squannacook River to the junction might be a good idea on, yet another, beautiful Sunday morning. 

This is the view entering the Squannacook from the Nashua River...
... and should have reminded me of how many blowdowns would likely block my path.  I'd only made it about a half mile in when these 2 beaver dams discouraged further upstream progress...

Upon turning about I saw one of the few remaining Cardinal flowers of the season...
...and also observed one large snapping turtle laying on the river bottom with his sizable tail and hind quarters catching my eye...

Back where the river passes close to the Peterborough and Shirley Branch I exited my boat and headed west along the abandoned tracks...
Though several trails within the Groton Town Forest were encountered interjecting with the railbed, I found no trace of Squannacook Junction and returned to the river.

Later, after studying the topo maps more closely, I drove to West Groton and hiked down the Peterborough and Shirley Branch about half a mile to where I finally came upon Squannacook Junction...
In the above photo the still (barely) intact Peterborough and Shirley is running east (right) to west (left) while the Brookline and Pepperell Branch disappears in the woods at center (sans rails and cross-ties).
From this spot the line ran 13.86 miles in northward direction following the Nashua and Nissitissit rivers to Muscatanipus Pond (aka  Lake Potanipo)...


Yesterday, intrigued to explore the place where the ice originated, I drove to Muscatanipus Pond in Brookline, NH known these days as Potanipo Lake...

Though the name has been altered and shortened it should be noted that in Edward E. Parker's 1906 History of Brookline, formerly Raby, Hillsborough County New Hampshire  it is explained that Muscatanipus is the original and correct name.  Parker states the name means "Great Bear Pond".

In the earlier mentioned Cambridge Chronicle 1905 article the pond and its waters are described thus: "Situated among the rocks and woodlands of the Old Granite State, about sixty-five miles from Boston, is the little town of Brookline, secluded, peaceful, and picturesque.  About a mile north of the village, some ninety feet above its level, half hidden by primeval forests and granite hills, lies a lake, the source of the Nissitissit river.  The lake, itself fed by two mountain streams and innumerable crystal springs, gets its name from the Indians, who pleased with the clearness and purity of its waters, called it in their language, Muscatanapus - The Great Mirror.....The company has the reputation of cutting the purest ice in the country and this fact is admitted by experts who have analyzed and scientifically examined it.  The appearance of the ice-its delicate blue tinge and great transparency indicate the purity it possesses."  
Sounds similar to today's advertisements for 'mountain spring' bottled water.


 I launched very close to where the Nissitissit River flows out of the 250 acre pond...

The Brookline and Pepperell branch crossed the Nissitissit just before reaching the pond at the spot where this pedestrian covered bridge stands today (on the old railroad bridge supports)...
The bridge is located just across Mason Rd from the boat launch.

Paddling away from the launch one sees quite a cluster of white wooden buildings along the eastern shore.  This is where there once stood what some claim to have been the largest ice storage facility (under one roof) in the world, The Fresh Pond Ice Co...
The above photo is posted on a kiosk by the covered bridge.  Also posted is this description of the ice house...

The Brookline, NH Historical Society's website has some great old photos of the ice trade and the railroad.



Traveling to the pond's north side I looked back towards Muscatanipus Hill...
...before entering a very scenic tributary entering the pond from the north.  Greeting entrants is this mid-channel rock loaded with character...
Beyond the rock is this beaver dam...
...which if surmounted allows another half mile of the stream to be explored...

Returning to the pond I noted my first fall foliage...
...appropriately enough on the last full day of summer.

I thought I heard this heron shout "hey iceman"...

Before leaving the pond I pulled these 2 old half-pint milk bottles from the shallows near where the ice house was located...
Both were from the 1940s and about 10 years after the ice house had burned down.  The bottles probably were related to Camp Tevya which was built in 1940 on the land where the ice house stood.

The diminutive bottles reminded me of how the term "Half Pint" came to be used in describing folks vertically challenged.
Another term  "blockhead" and can best be explained by this.

Leaving the area I drove past this well preserved remnant of the Brookline and Pepperell branch...
The Brookline Station is a private residence today and sits just down the road from Muscatanipus Pond.


Trash recovered from the Nashua and Squannacook on Sunday...

Trash recovered from Muscatanipus Pond yesterday...