Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Concord River - Egg Rock to Fox Island & Return

Since today would be yet another with no ice cream production, I decided to trash patrol the Concord River from Egg Rock down to Fox Island.  You won't find an island by this name on any map, but I believe the island pictured at left is the one so named by Henry David Thoreau and his brother John after they spent a night camping on it back in 1839.
They had reached this point after rowing about 7 miles from the village of Concord.  Their journey ultimately took them to near Concord, New Hampshire and became the basis for Henry's first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

After launching my vessel at Egg Rock I began heading downriver and passed the point where Concord's Mill Brook enters the river via this beaver built structure...
Between Great Meadows and Davis Hill some trash was recovered and as I approached Rt. 225 the river began to open up...
About a half mile below Rt. 4, Fox Island was reached and I went ashore near some of its granite outcroppings...
My passengers whom had been enjoying the shady comfort of the fo'c'sle also decided to disembark and stretch their legs on the island while I enjoyed some lunch...
After lunch it was "All Aboard" and we began our trip back to Egg Rock.
We were joined for a few miles by Bedford paddler Leon G. who was introducing his new Epic 18-X to the Concord River.  Leon let up on the accelerator long enough for me to snap this photo...
Arriving back at Egg Rock I unloaded today's catch of 42 pieces of trash.  There were 27 recyclable containers (7 redeemable) and 15 pieces of miscellaneous trash such as the Igloo cooler, plastic bags, and nip bottles.  YTD total stands at 2596.
The photo was actually taken back on a small beach in Bedford and doesn't show 7 late and unexpected entries...

It was probably just as well no ice cream was made today as it would have been pretty tough to keep it from melting in the 95 + degree heat! 

No comments: