Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Hartford Down to Middletown

This past Saturday morning I joined my friend Paul (aka Capt'n Dangerous) in paddling the stretch of the Connecticut River between Hartford and Middletown, CT.  By completing this stretch we've now experienced (in sections) the lower half of the 400 mile long Connecticut River. Future explorations will be from above the Cornish-Windsor Bridge in Vermont and New Hampshire .

We left from Riverside Park (opening photo) in Hartford on what was becoming a classic summer-like day.  Plenty of sunshine and rapidly warming temperatures.

Appropriately for this Memorial Day weekend, a group of veterans were preparing to launch their kayaks as well. I believe they were with the group Veterans' Rowing and Kayaking.
 
After taking a quick peek into the Hockanum River...
  ...we looked back at this view of Hartford...

The fact that the river once hosted ocean-going barges was evident at several locations such as this power generating facility...

These days, with less traffic of that nature, some of the equipment now serves other purposes...
 
 
At Wethersfield Cove a steady line of powerboats was heading out to the river.  With this being the unofficial start of summer it was like opening day for most anything that floats...except for some less fortunate craft...

 
 
...and also one powerboat we saw being towed off of a sandbar by TowBoatUS as its occupants stood in the river.
 
The main navigational channel hosted a seemingly endless parade of powerboats, jet-skis, and pontoon boats.  The wakes combined with a southerly breeze created lively waters. 
 
The Rocky Hill ferry, said to be the oldest continually operating ferry in the USA, had just crossed the river and was preparing to unload...
 
 
At a spot where the riverbank is rather steep I thought I heard a woman call out "Hey Iceman" from the top landing...
  
...it was that hot!
 
Gildersleeve Island had drawn a good-sized group of beached powerboats so we pushed on towards Wilcox Island and the mouth of the Mattabesset River...
 
...where other kayakers had found refuge from the wind and chop.
 
Just beyond Wilcox Island is the elegant Arrigoni Bridge...
...which from below has a rollercoaster look...
 
 
But my favorite structure was the old and rusty center-pivoting railroad bridge built in 1911...
 
 
Both the Capt'n and I felt sure it hadn't seen the passage of a train in decades...but we were both wrong as I later came across this youtube video shot last October showing not one, not two, but three Providence and Worcester locomotives pulling a few freight cars across.  
A closer look at the movable center span shows the bridge operator's control shack perched up high...
 
 
On a railfan discussion board I found where someone asked how the bridge was left in an open position when the operator went off-duty...the answer was that because it was manned 24/7 when one operator left the bridge another came aboard.  In its glory days the bridge carried trains traversing the New York to Boston Air Line.  These days the bridge is only opened when necessary to access rail customers across the river in Portland, and the controls are housed in a shack located on the fixed span.
 
The same discussion board mentioned the bridge having been used in 1993 by Billy Joel for his music video "The River of Dreams".  Billy and his back-up singers perform while standing upon wood planks laid across the rails.
 
After the railroad bridge we passed the docked Lady Katherine Cruise boat (biggest craft seen all day)...
 
...just before reaching our takeout at Middletown's Harbor Park.
 
A very modest trash haul came ashore with us...
 
 
It was a good day for working on honing our paddle-scooping techniques used in recovering trash while "on the fly".
 
Traveling home on a quiet Sunday morning I stopped alongside the French River in Webster, Ma where this tiny New Haven switch engine passes away the days...
 
 
...with a Providence and Worcester RR caboose...
 
 
At a nearby beer garden is this cryptic message...

















Monday, May 30, 2016

Mellow Mansfield Hollow

This past Friday I was able to get my 2016 summer underway with a pleasant drive into Connecticut for two days of paddling and camping.

I arrived at Mansfield Hollow Lake (aka Naugesatuck Lake) in northeast CT just before noontime and found a very mellow place from which to launch...plenty of room and very few people.

The 450 acre lake was created by the US Army Corps of Engineers back in 1950 when they built a dam on the Natchaug River above Willimantic as a flood-control measure.  Two tributaries to the Natchaug, the Mount Hope River and Fenton River, saw their original confluence at the Turnip Meadow permanently flooded (beyond my bow in photo)...
 
My goal was to explore the lake and a bit of its three contributing rivers using this chart found online...

My exploration of the Mount Hope ended rather quickly after only about 100 yards...

This was disappointing as I thought from looking at the chart it would allow further upriver passage than the Fenton.  Here I was glad to be wrong as the Fenton welcomed my passage under Route 89...
...and beckoned me further...
...to where the Nipmuck Trail crosses via a footbridge...

After about half a mile shallow conditions ended my ascent and I returned to the lake passing what I believe to be flowering honeysuckle...

Paddling to the south and into a pleasant breeze I passed under Bassett Bridge and entered the southern half of the lake where the dam across the Natchaug River stands...
The dam and related dikes can hold back up to 16 billion gallons of flood water thus protecting the downstream communities such as Willimantic and Norwich.

Reaching the lake's southeast corner I began heading up the Natchaug not sure how far I might get...
Progress came to an end about a mile and a quarter above the dam where the rocks held their ground...

A small and shady eddy provided a good spot to land and take in this view back downstream...
...and wonder how many others have stood upon that ledge over the eons.

With the afternoon slipping away it was time to head back to Bassett Bridge and drive west on Rt. 66 to where my tent would soon be pitched at Markham Meadows Campground in East Hampton.

Trash recovered while out on the water...


Thursday, May 26, 2016

Great Bay's Little Brother

After getting my first look at New Hampshire's Great Bay estuary last spring I'd been hoping to experience more of it this year.  When a training seminar brought me to the area this past Wednesday I found the forces of the universe (in this case the tides) were perfectly aligned for my purposes.

My boat hit the water 1.5 hours before high tide and I headed north from Adams Point...
...planning to explore the area north of Furber Strait shown on charts as Little Bay.

Just past Fox Point I reached the area where the Oyster and Bellamy Rivers enter from the west, and looking to the east the bay's outlet into the Piscataqua River could be seen...

Veering northwest brought me to the Scammell Bridge...
...which, after passing under, brought me into the Bellamy River and up to Clements Point where I turned about and headed back. 

Most of my return trip was in slack water which allowed for some gunkholing into pleasant spots such as this...

Before landing at Adams Point I passed through Furber Strait for a peek into the area of the bay I'd paddled last spring...
...where a distant Footman Island tempted.  However, as the tide had turned an hour before, the bay was now draining in earnest and my afternoon foray came to an end.

Very little in the way of trash was encountered (same as last time)...

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Downtime on the Sudbury

This Sunday morning found the water level at Egg Rock's "Meeting of the Rivers" getting down there (photo at left). 

Aside from thrashing carp in the shallows, the Sudbury River from the confluence up to Fairhaven Bay was quiet and peaceful.

A moody-looking sky tried several times to rain but just couldn't seem to get much going. 

Newly enlarged Canada geese families line the river...

A white-tailed deer monitored my progress...
...and didn't move a lick...

Encountered the well prepared TRYAK heading upriver...


My trash haul reflected a family-sized group having enjoyed a bucket of KFC while fishing from the shore at Heath's Bridge...
 
...and an old medicine bottle with the apothecary symbol for ounces.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Trestles, Aqueducts, and Mileposts

For this blog, yesterday's paddling beneath the venerable Waban Arches (photo at left) results in Trashpaddler's post number 1,000.  How did it come to this, you might ask?  It's simple...I really like getting out on the water and have no problem scooping up trash I encounter along the way.

Yesterday, with an afternoon job scheduled in Dover, I left early in the morning allowing for an upstream paddle on the Charles River starting from Redwing Bay at the Needham/Dover line.

Though I'd paddled this stretch of the Charles before, I hadn't previously stumbled upon the entrance to this headrace located a fair bit above Cochrane Dam...
 

Heading upriver the first bridge encountered was this rickety old railroad trestle which a person had just nimbly made it across...

Upon closer inspection the barricades at both ends and many missing cross-ties attest to its abandoned status...

This spot was sheltered from a still pesky breeze left over from the recent multi-day gales.

Roadway crossings provide street names and distance from Boston Harbor...

The scenery is pleasant and wildlife plentiful...red-winged blackbirds, cardinals, red-tailed hawks, blue herons, mute swans, ducks, and Canada geese.  Some of the geese are still sitting on eggs...

Two escaped floats were seen...one on 6 drums and the other on 8.  The 8-drum float appears to be supporting a beaver lodge...
...but it's actually in front of the shore-built lodge.

This cross-river blowdown near the tip of Elm Bank tested my desire to proceed further upriver...
There was just enough water to shimmy my way across the fallen branches.

My reward soon appeared in the distance and brought me into Waban Brook for a closer look...
...which, in turn, brought me under the structure built in 1876...
...and, subsequently, allowed this first time (for me) downstream passage and view...

The setting combined with the imposing size of the structure had me thinking as though I'd stumbled upon the ruins of a lost civilization.

The aqueduct was built to convey drinking water from Framingham to Boston.  While no longer in use it remains intact and could be placed into service in the event of an emergency...

"Waban" is said to be the Native American word for wind, which was certainly appropriate for yesterday's visit to the brook of that name. This spring so far has been one of the windiest I remember.

Trash rounded-up along the way...