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...