Monday, May 11, 2009

Sudbury River - Little Farms to Indian Pt. & Back


Trash patrolled the Sudbury River between Little Farms and Indian Point today and as this photo shows, conditions were ideal. After launching, I headed downstream hanging a right almost immediately to check out the remains of the river's original oxbow. About a half mile into this mile-long and cut-off section of river, I came upon a beaver dam that stretched across the channel. Rather than portage, I turned around and headed back to the main river and continued downstream. At the stone boundary marker, I stopped and confirmed that the stone's third side has an 'F' for Framingham...

This solves the mystery mentioned in my last post concerning this stone. Each of the 3 towns that join at this spot has a side of the crude granite marker and paint the year of their last verification?
As I approached the Allen Morgan Avian Study Area, I saw a deer feeding from pulled down tree branches. Recovered quite a few pieces of flotsam from snags in this area and then proceeding downstream again, came upon these large pieces of polyethylene at a bend in the river...

Once they were rolled up, they nearly filled a 30-gallon trash bag and were stowed below deck.
At Indian Point, near Heard Pond, I stopped for lunch and while eating, thought about historical accounts that mention large annual summer encampments of up to 5,000 Nipmucks living in "beehive huts" along the shores of Heard Pond....

These accounts were mentioned in Matthew Eisenson's "Sudbury River Canoe Guide". Looking out upon Heard Pond from Indian Point today, I saw no beehive huts, only mute swans, great blue herons, wood ducks, and numerous birds.
Heading back upriver I came upon this impressive wall of roots...

Just a little further upstream was this computer monitor that somehow found its way into this otherwise pristine section of river...

The monitor along with 3 tires had to be left behind until their ultimate recovery by someone with a bigger boat.
As I passed the spot where the sheets of plastic were earlier recovered, I saw that a family of Canada geese had claimed the location for their own...

I arrived at my takeout location with 42 pieces of trash. Of these 27 were recyclable containers (5 redeemable). The other 15 were miscellaneous rubbish including the sheets of poly...

My YTD total stands at 1820.

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