So many times when driving west on Route 2 in Orange, MA I'd notice to my right and left an enticing water body just before reaching the exit for Route 202 South. Eventually I learned its name was Lake Rohunta and that it flowed into the Millers River. After doing additional research I found helpful information on the following websites: MassachusettsPaddler.com, for launch site options; Millerswatershed.org, for an explanation of the lake's name being an acronym for the Rodney Hunt Company and a history of the various dams; and MassWildlife for this map which proved most helpful in showing the location of deeper channels...
....in this otherwise very shallow body of water.
Early this past Sunday, on yet another cool and crisp autumn morning, I drove to the end of Eagleville Road and launched at the MassWildlife boat launch...
...which is just south of Route 2. Paddled northward to the dam at the lake's outlet...
The dam was once known as the Partridgeville Dam...
The tip of my boat's bow points toward a small hydro-electric facility located below the dam. According to Lake Rohunta Natural Resource Inventory (found at millerswatershed.org), electricity was generated there until the early 1960s. Here I turned about and began my approximately 3 mile trip to the causeway at Branch Bridge Road in New Salem, MA. The sun was beginning to burn off the last bits of fog...
Encountered what I'm fairly sure was a small otter just north of the Route 2 bridge.
After passing the remains of Eagleville Dam I began to notice the water surface getting progressively more covered with aquatic weeds either side of the main channel...
...
Just before reaching a large island I noticed what looked like some steam rising from a large beaver lodge...
The island is one of the more prominent features of the lake...
I was tempted to circumnavigate the island but found the channel around its east side more suitable to mushquash than kayakers...
The area of the island and south of it seemed much more secluded. The Lake Rohunta Natural Resource Inventory mentions: "In 1920 a million board-feet of pine were cut on and near the island north of Branch Bridge".
A little way south of the island was the Branch Bridge Road causeway and box culvert...
...which is fenced. Boaters wishing to proceed further to the south would need to portage across the causeway. I landed near the causeway, and after seeing the waters beyond even more weed-choked...
...decided not to portage and instead walked a short distance down the dirt road to an old cemetery...
...seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Walked up the stone stairway...
...and noticed one of the better maintained tombstones marking the grave of Seth Stone, a "Soldier of the Revolution"...
...who was buried there in 1827. The cemetery seems to be an almost forgotten place and therefore all the more tranquil...
Leaving Branch Bridge I paddled northward while watching folks like this one falling from the sky...
...perhaps customers of nearby Jumptown Skydiving.
About halfway back I came across this white buoy in the middle of the lake...
Not sure of its purpose but wonder if it may mark the spot where the towns of Athol, New Salem, and Orange come together.
Following the zigzags of Lake Rohunta's deeper channels provided me with a unique paddling experience on a beautiful Sunday morning. I had the lake and the boat launch all to myself.
Trash encountered consisted of some recent aluminum cans at the boat launch and older stuff found along the muddy shore at the Branch Bridge Road causeway ...
...appropriate for it being the morning after Halloween.
After a hot cocoa break on Scout Island I continued upriver noting the line of sugar maples below Lee's Bridge were now leafless...
...and this deer...
...and this eagle in flight...
