Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Concord River - Egg Rock to Balls Hill & Return

It felt more like September out on the Concord River this afternoon. Strange to have it be so warm yet the trees mostly bare. I paddled downstream from Egg Rock and soon encountered a fellow kayaker heading the other way. My first trash was a can of BudLite, followed by a pint can of Fosters. Now, there's a beeeer! A few more Budweiser products and then a Carling Black Label , made in Canada, not over on Rt. 9 where it used to be made. These were all before reaching the Great Meadows Landing. Between Great Meadows and Ball's Hill there were mostly plastic bottles and another of those 2-cartidge caulking (structural epoxy) setups that I had been finding on the Assabet. This was the sixth one of these recovered. Fortunately, all were empty. My thinking is they originated at the Warner's Pond dam reconstruction and were swept downriver when the coffer dam failed in the spring.
Noise was plentiful along the river today. I believe that every machine that either blows, sucks, or chops up leaves was in operation. Things finally quieted down near Great Meadows, but then a couple of planes flew overhead. Real quiet was realized by my favorite little cabin downstream of Sawmill Brook. A great blue heron stood guard on the opposite shore. It seems a shame that this cabin stays unoccupied.
Near Ball's Hill, a couple of guys were fishing from an outboard but hadn't had much luck yet.
On the return trip upriver, I encountered another kayaker and a 2-man canoe moving right along towards Bedford. Quite a few folks were taking in the Old North Bridge site.
Getting close to my takeout location, I was stuck on a trash count of 13 and not happy about it. My eyes scoured the bank and were rewarded with one more plastic bottle to get me off that unlucky number. A beaver swam across my path shortly after.
My count for the day was 14 bringing my YTD total to 2251.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love it, keep up the great work.
Alan

Anonymous said...

You would not exist except for your Dad having been born on the 13th!