Saturday, April 30, 2016

Quinsigamond's Ripple

Yesterday my workweek ended on a hill in the town of Grafton and I found myself looking down upon the Blackstone River valley.  The only familiar launch site was the one below Fisherville, and I wanted to find a new stretch of water to explore.  After some poking around I came across Ekblaw Landing (photo at left) alongside Route 122/140 which, as launch sites go, fit the bill perfectly.

After launching and heading upriver I saw this sign...
...which reminded me of a previous trip back in 2010 down this same river from Lake Quinsigamond to the north.  That trip ended at the Hovey Pond dam where no portage trail could be found.  I wondered if by paddling upriver I might be able to connect the dots.  After paddling less than a mile I found myself looking into Big Bummit Brook...
 ...where the Grafton and Upton Railroad crosses.  To the west loomed the Washington Mills complex...
...where the Quinsigamond disappears towards the aforementioned Hovey Pond Dam. 

With dots now connected I headed back down the Quinsigamond passing what looked to me like "Toadstool Landing"...

Then it was through the tunnel beneath the multi-lane Mass Pike...
...past Ekblaw Landing to where the river widens before reaching Lake Ripple. 

In a wooded setting along the right bank this small granite monument caught my eye...

A short distance before one enters the shallow waters of Lake Ripple this rock formation sits mid-river...

Once into the lake I followed the river's original path to the lake's outlet at the site of the dam responsible for creating the lake back in the 1700s...
Water tumbling over this spillway flows another couple of miles to the confluence with the Blackstone River just before the dam at Fisherville.

I'd later come across an online Recreation Guide to the Quinsigamond River a great resource for anyone planning to paddle this river.  There I found the info necessary for one day continuing down to the Blackstone.

Circumnavigating the lake brought me past several well-tended nests...
 
 
To the east lies the busy Route 122/140 at the lake's eastern shore...
 ...where I spotted the only sign identifying the waterbody...

Staying close to shore resulted in a fairly good-sized trash haul for only 4 miles of paddling...

I'm looking forward to soon paddling the rest of the way down to the Blackstone.

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