Along the way and while hugging the west shore we continued looking for a campsite matching the one Henry David Thoreau described in his A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
While we didn't find any specific spot that matched his exact description we did come across this stone marker up on the west riverbank and downriver from Pennichuck Brook...
We pushed on and eventually reached Cromwell's Falls and the very lock which allowed the Thoreau brothers passage up through the falls...
Of the many locks which once comprised the Merrimack River Navigation System this one is said to be in the best condition. It was placed into service in 1815 and used into the 1850s. Some of the wood supports for the gate can still be seen at the downstream end...
On this day back in 1839 the Thoreau brothers had begun their return trip from Hooksett, NH back to Concord, MA. They would camp on this night about 5 miles upriver from Cromwell's Falls in the northern part of Merrimack opposite a large island.
Thoreau described the seasonal change having occurred while they slept that night:
"We had gone to bed in summer, and we awoke in autumn; for summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf."
They pushed off from their campsite before 5am, and with help from a northerly breeze sailed and rowed approximately 50 miles to their home in Concord, MA arriving there after dark. That's a pretty respectable distance to cover in one day.
After our brief visit to Cromwell's Falls and lock we returned to Greeley with some flotsam gathered up along the way...
Yesterday, the end of my workday left me within easy striking distance of the Nashua River in Harvard, MA. After launching from the Oxbow NWA, I made my way upriver needing to find a way under, through, or over a half dozen or so blowdowns in the process...
Kept thinking the next one would stop me until I'd reached a point 3.25 miles up from the launch where one tree, spanning the river bank to bank, did just that.
The stretch of the Nashua River I'd paddled has very few visible signs of civilization. One of the larger signs is this still active railroad bridge...
Another hint of civilization was the sound of gunfire from the nearby firing ranges of Fort Devens...which served as a fitting reminder that yesterday was the anniversary of 9/11.
Rounded up these pieces of flotsam found slowly making their way downriver, moving from one blowdown to another by utilizing the wind and the currents...
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