Saturday, August 21, 2010

Sudbury River - Egg Rock to Heath's Bridge and Return

On the Hill Nashawtuc
At the Meeting of the Rivers
And along the Banks
Lived the Indian owners of
Musketaquid
Before the White Man came

The early rays of daybreak had not yet reached down to the above inscription at the base of Egg Rock as I went about my work trash patrolling the area.  The shoreline within sight of Egg Rock has been visited by many shore fishermen recently.  This was evidenced by the large number of bait tubs and other fishing paraphernalia recovered from the northwest side of the Sudbury/Assabet/Concord confluence...
 While recovering this beer can, a deceased crayfish was found within it.  Hope it wasn't the beer that did him in...
 Approaching Route 2, the new day was now well in progress...
The river was becoming more and more populated by the minute.  Blue herons, killdeer, sandpipers, and turtles were being joined by flotillas of canoes and kayaks.  It was good to see Mike fishing from his electric powered canoe.  He reported the fishing to be not too good and we both acknowledged the need for rain.  That's the only downside to all this great weather we've been enjoying.  Even in Camelot it rains (though only at night). 
At Heath's Bridge all crew, passengers, and stowaways went ashore for some leg stretching...
The day's haul numbered 158 pieces of trash.  The breakdown: 59 recyclable containers (34 redeemable) and 99 pieces of rubbish such as 33 bait tubs (a new one-day record), a traffic cone, an a/c unit face plate, a wheel cover, styrofoam cups, plastic bags, etc.  YTD total stands at 4215. 
Half of today's trash was recovered within eyesight of Egg Rock.  The remainder was mostly stuff that had only recently become exposed as water levels dropped.  A couple of old bottles were found.  One was a blue-glass Keasbey & Mattison Co., Amber, PA that may have contained their most popular product Bromo-Caffeine.  Another was an old bottle of Phillip's Milk of Magnesia with a patent date of August 21, 1906.  It struck me as more than a little odd that today is, in fact, August 21.   The two old timers are shown with a long-neck Coke bottle...

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