Dawn at Petapawag

 
Launched at Petapawag in Groton, MA at dawn on Saturday...

The rising sun soon chased darkness from the river's west shoreline...

The colors of fall were on display...

On the river's east side this stump seemed to be reaching for some of that sun...

An immature eagle was perched not too far from the nest...

...where, perhaps, it had hatched earlier this year...

This blue jay was seen to be possibly drying its wings?...

...or possibly it was injured.  It moved away from the river on foot rather than by flight...still vocal though.

There wasn't much trash and most of it was found in this floating bag of trash...

The small haul...

Nashua's Brief Rise

 

Paid a visit to the Nashua River's North Branch yesterday in Lancaster, MA in hopes of finding higher water levels due to the recent nor'easter.  While there were signs that the water had risen it was also evident it had already dropped nearly a foot.  The brief rise did, however, leave a layer of slippery mud making both my entry and exit from the water a bit of an adventure.

Launched near the CSX railroad bridge...

Paddled down to the "Meeting of the Waters" where the south branch joins with the north to form the river's main stem before heading upriver.  Overhead were clouds that alternated between breaking and darkening...

...and at one point I would've sworn I heard thunder.  A check of weather radar showed no thunderstorm activity.

After about a mile my upriver progress came to an end at this blowdown...

Plenty of plastic flotsam in this stretch included 67 "nip" bottles...

Nashua's Oxbow Before the Big Blow

 

Amidst all the hoopla regarding our impending Nor'easter, I enjoyed an early morning paddle on very calm Nashua River in Harvard, MA.  Heading down Still River Depot Road, on my way to the boat launch, the view westward showed Mount Wachusett seemingly ready to face whatever the storm brings...

Things were on the quiet side as usual but the river's tranquility was temporarily suspended by the passing of a 120-car CSX freight train...

...

The train originated in Portland, ME and was destined for Selkirk, NY.

After its passing, quiet once again prevailed...

...with just a touch of fall foliage...

Trash was plentiful and included all kinds of plastic containers.  Of note were 142 "nip" bottles and a dozen cigarette lighters...

Another Way to Wamesit

 

Paddled down the Concord River to Wamesit Falls yesterday.  Back in July I approached Wamesit from the Merrimack River, and a few days later walked the Concord River Greenway Trail between Lawrence Street and Rogers Street in Lowell.  Link to that post.  At that time I snapped this photo of Wamesit Falls from the trailside overlook...

...and made a promise to myself to visit the site (above the dam) by boat.

I started my trip in North Billerica, MA close to the time of the Autumnal Equinox and took a look at the Talbot Mills Dam...

...before following the river's flow northward.  After a couple of miles I passed under bridges for Route 495 and the MBTA's Lowell Commuter Line in the distance...

Approaching Muldoon Park and Fort Hill...

While passing under the CSX Railroad bridge I paddled alongside a long curved wooden trestle which long ago carried a railroad spur...

This spur formerly crossed Lawrence Street and followed the Concord River serving several riverside mills.  A steam locomotive hauling a few freight cars atop the trestle would've made quite a photo.

My trip ended just a bit downstream from the Lawrence Street bridge...

...when I arrived at Wamesit Falls...

The above view is opposite that of my opening photo.

Having approached  Wamesit from different sides I now have a better appreciation for the size of the area and why its name is said to have meant "the place for all".

After my visit to the falls I headed back upriver with help from a busy northeast breeze...

Some trash gathered up along the way...

While picking up a discarded plastic bottle I noticed several dead crabs...

...that I'm guessing were dumped here because, as far as I know, there are no crabs native to this river.

On a side note, after having been on the Richelieu River in Quebec last week and learned of how the river got its name I thought it a coincidence to see the 1974 film "The Four Musketeers" on television last night.  Cardinal Richelieu was portrayed in the film by Charlton Heston.  As near as I can tell Cardinal Richelieu never set foot in North America yet a river was named in his honor.  He must have been powerful indeed.

Jug Island to the Fordway Bar

 

Started my trip downriver to the Fordway Bar in Billerica, MA at daybreak...not for a drink, mind you, but just to look around.  It was an especially quiet Sunday morning perhaps due to a forecast of rain. It was also the last Sunday of the summer.  Launched near Jug Island and headed downriver (above photo).

This great blue heron contemplates a discarded plastic soda bottle?...

A flock of turkeys fattening up...

Fordway Bridge (Pollard Street) stands at the head of the Fordway Bar...

According to Rev. Henry A. Hazen's History of Billerica the town's first bridge was built at the Fordway, possibly as early as 1657.

Entering the rock-lined passageway...

Passing through...

Past the narrowest part and looking downriver towards the Talbot Mill dam...

Ron McAdow in his guidebook The Concord, Sudbury, and Assabet Rivers describes Fordway Bar: "The resistant rock of this formation of granodiorite has slowed the fall of the Concord for untold ages. In 1711, the first dam was built for a mill where the river tumbled off the northern end of the formation.  The eleven-foot drop is the first substantial fall below Saxonville (northeast Framingham) on the Sudbury, or below West Concord on the Assabet."

Heading back upriver...

Approaching the Fordway Bridge another kayaker was encountered. He pulled a traffic cone from the river and relocated it to the riverbank.

Stopped briefly at the landing near Contribution Park and the Route 3A bridge...

Trash gathered up along the way...

A Strategic Stretch of River

 

Found myself paddling down the Richelieu River this past Monday morning in the Canadian province of Quebec.  I'd been looking to get in one more paddling trip before summer's end and sought to find a waterway that had some historical significance, and that I hadn't previously visited.  The more I looked into the 77-mile long Richelieu River the more I came to appreciate just how active the stretch of it between the Canada/US border and Fort Saint Jean was during the late summer/fall of 1775.  At that time Major General Philip Schuyler was directed by the Continental Congress to lead an expeditionary force out of Lake Champlain and down the Richelieu River into Quebec.  The expedition consisted of some 1200 men, 2 sailing vessels (Liberty and Enterprise), and numerous batteaux.  Their mission was part of a two-pronged incursion (the other prong being Arnold's Expedition through Maine...) into Quebec with the expectation that both would ultimately combine and capture Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River.  While examining maps of the Richelieu I noticed a point of land on the river's east side called Remember Baker Point and, curious to learn more, came across Mark A. Anderson's blog post, The War Years (1775 - 1783), which provides a detailed account of an incident that occurred while Captain Remember Baker was scouting in advance of Schuyler's expedition.  This historical marker explains the basic facts...

The marker stood at the actual location from 1929 until 2024 when it was relocated to Isle La Motte on the US side of the border...

I stopped briefly at Isle La Motte to visit the new location before driving across the border into Quebec where, for the first time in my life, I was in a place where everyone spoke a different language than I.  Scouted several launch sites and enjoyed my second-ever A & W dining experience before checking into a hotel in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu for the night.  

Early the following morning I launched into the Richelieu River near Ile Ash in Lacolle, Quebec.  A wealth of local paddling information and printable maps was found on the website La Route Bleue.

The view southward and upriver towards the US border and Lake Champlain in the distance...

Paddled a couple of miles downriver to the spot where Remember Baker was killed in a dustup over one of his boats (No Trespassing signs discourage landing)...

Presumably, Baker is buried here.

From there I continued another few miles to the 210-acre Ile aux Noix...

This bald eagle greeted my arrival there (always a good omen)...

I landed on the island's east side where it's said Schuyler's base camp was located...

These days tourists can visit the Fort Lennox National Historic Site of Canada on Ile aux Noix. Fort Lennox was built between 1819 and 1829.  However, this year Fort Lennox was closed for repairs.

After my visit I headed south back to where I'd launched...

Looking to the southwest a far-off mountain could be seen (perhaps the Adirondacks?)...

The next morning after checking out of my hotel I launched on the river's east shore at Parc Goyette.  This put me just across the river from Fort Saint Jean (Continental forces called it St. Johns)...

A little closer view...

Today the site is home to the Royal Military College Saint Jean.

 

According to information found on Wikipedia, The National Museum of the United States Army, and The Revolutionary War Journal, the British fort that once stood here became a major obstacle to Schuyler's expedition.  On September 6, 1775 Schuyler and company disembarked from Ile aux Noix and came about 11 miles downriver.  Anyone here then would have seen the sailing vessels Liberty and Enterprise along with many smaller boats landing somewhere near the Bernier River on the west shoreline...

...and then tried to approach the fort on land.  Near the creek's south side they came under attack from a force of more than 100 Mohawk warriors. 

 
 I paddled a little more than a mile from Fort Saint Jean up to and into the creek-like Bernier...

...then followed its winding course to this bridge...

...where it became too shallow.  About 1400' from this location is a historical marker (I visited by car)...

Following this skirmish Schuyler's force retreated to their camp at Ile aux Noix.  At this point, Major General Schuyler fell ill and turned over command to Brigadier General Richard Montgomery.  Another trip downriver to the fort and back upriver occurred on September 10th.  On September 17th, Montgomery decided to besiege the fort.  It ultimately took until November 3rd for the fort's commander Major Charles Preston to finally surrender to Montgomery.  By this time much of the decent weather had expired.

It seems to me that Baker's demise and Schuyler's illness may have been bad omens, just as Arnold's expedition experienced the bad omen of a drunken soldier murdering a fellow soldier early in their expedition.  Following the failed New Year's Eve attack on Quebec City, in which Richard Montgomery was killed and Arnold was wounded, the now combined force slowly retreated back up the Saint Lawrence and Richelieu River on their way home.  A detailed account of the retreat was found at RevolutionaryWarJournal.com: Canada Lost: The American Retreat from Quebec January - June 1776 by Harry Schenawolf. During the retreat they spent another10 days camped on Ile aux Noix where, according to Wikipedia, more than 900 men died from small pox and were buried in mass graves on the island. 

Before leaving the Richelieu I looked over to the entrance of the 12-mile long Chambly Canal. Today vessels heading downriver towards the Saint Lawrence River can avoid the rapids by taking the canal (seen to the left in this photo)...

The lift bridge at the canal's entrance looks like a gigantic mute swan to me.

This same stretch of river was also traversed in 1609 by Captain Samuel de Champlain along with an Algonquian war party in canoes on their way to the lake that would later bear his name.  This plaque is located on Isle La Motte...

The Richelieu River is named for Cardinal Richelieu, a powerful minister under Louis XIII.  The river was previously called the Iroquois River (per Wikipedia).  

Ile aux Noix is said to mean isle of nuts (walnuts) (per Wikipedia).

Trash was extremely rare in these parts...