Monday, April 20, 2009

Sudbury River - Rt. 62 to Pantry Brook & Back

With all the activities related to Patriots Day occuring in the vicinity of the Old North Bridge this morning, I decided to head in the other direction and trash patrol the Sudbury River up to Pantry Brook and back. Launching into the river at 7:30 am, I began my trip upriver through some low-lying fog until reaching Heath's Bridge and the first trash of the day. Just downstream of the bridge were 10 pieces of trash that were most likely from last season. However, on the upstream side there was a fair amount of recently discarded material. New and old assembled on the beach prior to boarding...

Leaving Heath's Bridge, the sun began to break through the low clouds and through my ear phones was heard the recently added "Promontory" from "The Last of the Mohicans" soundtrack. Instead of Fort William Henry looming ahead on the side of a hill it was Fort Fairhaven...

The dastardly Magua would be wise to think twice before trying any mischief here lest the CCTV camera, mounted on the dock, reveal his movements...

Not a soul was encountered crossing Fairhaven Bay and about half way between the bay and the Lincoln Canoe Launch, I came upon this odd scene...

I stowed the pillow below deck and began heading towards Lee's Bridge, while wondering just how a pillow with pillow cover still attached could end up on the river's muddy shore. Before reaching any conclusions, I came upon a green trash bag filled with 4 more pillows. These four were soaked and heavy so they were kept on deck until I could land my kayak at Lee's Landing...

Here, I drained as much water as I could and squeezed them into the aft storage compartment. A red-tailed hawk circled overhead. Underway once again, I began seeing more ducks, mostly mallards and a pair of cormorants. Red-winged blackbirds and tree swallows were also plentiful. Reaching the mouth of Pantry Brook, I paddled up to the barrier and shortly a hot cup of cocoa was sitting on my table...

Following my 'mug-up', I started heading back downriver and found it fast going in places with a brisk wind at my back. In the vicinity of Martha's Point, paddling was hardly required, allowing me to admire the scenery...

Between here and my takeout location, was encountered the only other boat I would see, a canoe with two paddlers. It appeared they might be training for next Sunday's 'Run of the Charles' paddling event.
My trash count for the day was 45 pieces of flotsam. Of these, 22 were redeemable (recyclable) beer cans/bottles. The balance were wads of fishing line, plastic bags, styrofoam cups, pillows, etc. Hopefully, there isn't a mattress and boxspring floating out there somewhere!
YTD total stands at 1354.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pillows? With covers? WOW. Would that dude you are always talking about have been a farce regarding camping out with the otters?