Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Cochituate Waters

Yet another stellar day in this summer that just keeps rolling them out! 
With the Bird Island Challenge looming on the horizon, the waters of Cochituate provided a great place to get in some practice.  Still a long way from the chopiness and saltiness of Buzzards Bay! 
The photo at left shows the view entering the North Pond.  I believe the yellow boom acts as a blinking yellow light to slowdown the on-water traffic.  All vessels are required to make a 90 degree turn to the left before proceeding north.
The North Pond gave up a little trash at the far end and a tire on the west side.  I almost passed on picking up the tire, but thought back to having seen this recent account of some other's efforts.  One tire seems like the least I could do, considering their haul!   Check out the photo of the guy towing the tire barge!
Just before passing under the always busy Route 9, and entering the South Lake, I drank in this view of the cascading water falls at Boston Scientific...

Found myself thinking what a great model this would make for wastewater treatment plant outfalls.  Certainly nicer than a pipe jutting out into the water!
Once in the South Pond, I watched this red-tailed hawk evict the resident cormorants from their favorite little island...
 Between the South and Middle Ponds, I climbed the banking to check out this view of the old PennCentral Railroad grade looking towards the Wonder Bread plant...
 Once back at the takeout, the day's catch smiled for the camera...
They numbered 27 and were composed of 20 pieces of rubbish including the tire, a styrofoam cooler cover, plastic bags, etc. and 7 recyclable containers (5 redeemable).  The tire was left at the vehicle gate where I hope DCR will be able to handle its disposal.  YTD total 3955.

2 comments:

Erik Eckilson said...

Hey Al - saw the reference to Chip's river cleanup - do you post on P-net?

Al said...

Erik, Yes, Paddling.net is where I saw the message about Chip's huge tire haul. Those guys took things to a whole other level! I'm a frequent reader of paddling.net and find it a great resource for all things paddling related. Other than an occasional comment, I stay on the sidelines (though was guilty of the "tired out" pun).