Chasing the Sun in Fairhaven Bay

Yesterday was another exceptional late summer day 'round these parts.  I'd paddled up the Sudbury River from Lowell Road to Fairhaven Bay when I saw the sun was unusually low on the far side of the bay.
As I approached, it rose up and drifted 10 yards to the east. (Perhaps I'd allowed myself to get a little dehydrated on this day with very little shade).  Just to be sure it was what I thought it was, I exited my boat and approached the shore where I managed to capture, not only the sun but, 3 nice ears of Indian corn...

Now I can keep the sun and corn in reserve 'til the upcoming winter's darkest days.  Definitely the most unusual Mylar balloon I've encountered to date.

Others were also out enjoying the Sudbury, as this well-populated pontoon boat attests...

This fine looking row boat also graced the lower Sudbury...

The recently elevated railroad bridge near the South Bridge Boathouse carried a commuter train...

...which brought to mind the missing railroad bridge that long ago carried the Reformatory Branch over the Sudbury River further downriver, closer to Egg Rock.  I often find myself trying to visualize the structure that carried trains across the Sudbury River for 48 years between 1879 and 1927.  Up until recently I'd been unsuccessful in finding any photos of this bridge online...until the other day when I stumbled upon this series of Reformatory Branch photographs taken by Charles Dee in the late 1920s.


The fourth photo shows 3 children standing on the bridge and the view, I believe, is looking from east to west (or towards Nashawtuc Hill).  It was on that side of the river that a few of the old wooden piers still protrude from the ground...

Aside from that there's little, other than the fence where the roadbed abruptly ends, to show a bridge once spanned the river here...

Two roadway bridges from the same era, Elm Street and Nashawtuc Road, sported new cautionary signs similar to one recently seen on the Charles River...

Rubbish encountered along the way...