Assabet Snaps to Life

It's been quite awhile since the Assabet River chugged the way it did yesterday.  The effects of Friday night's deluge on the river are reflected by the USGS gauge in Maynard.  The river's water level, that had been languishing around 1 foot for months, rapidly rose to 3.3 feet in a matter of hours.  Flow rate went from 30 cubic feet per second to 420 cubic feet. 

I launched Saturday morning from Lowell Road, and paddled to the inscription at Egg Rock (opening photo) which showed a modest rise in water level.  However, the difference in flow rate between the Sudbury River and Assabet was obvious to the eye....and it seemed the Sudbury had stopped to admire the Assabet as it raced past.

Proceeding upriver on the Assabet I enjoyed making slow but steady progress, occasionally resting at eddies.  Many of the rocks that emerged over the summer were now submerged...

A short way above Willow Island I came across this boat...

...that had gone adrift and ended up pinned against a snag upstream of Willow Island.  Believe I've seen it beached behind a nearby home....guess it wasn't secured by rope.

At the confluence with Nashoba Brook this bag of Deer Corn was leaning up against a tree...

It no longer contained deer bait but rather 3 empty beer containers...

...a reminder that archery hunting season for deer is in progress.  According to Massachusetts hunting regulations baiting for deer during hunting season is illegal (but so is littering for that matter).

I stopped my upriver work at the MBTA commuter rail bridge in West Concord and began the much quicker and easier return trip back to Lowell Rd.  There I encountered Ray and Dave who'd just returned from paddling the Sudbury River.  Like me, they'd recovered trash found afloat along the way.

My trash haul from the Assabet...

Aside from the trash, it was good to see the Assabet looking its old self again.