Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Paddling Stony Brook in Westford

It seems as though our summer season is in triple-overtime and days like these are just too good to waste.  So, after an afternoon appointment brought me to the town of Westford, I decided to paddle a small portion of Stony Brook.  The brook, which runs from Forge Pond to the Merrimack River in Chelmsford, seems more like a small river than brook to me.  After launching from the River Street Boat Launch, I headed downstream past a few obstacles in the form of downed trees and beaver dams.  Almost immediately ducks were flushing out from all around me...both wood ducks and mallards.  Ospreys were seen repeatedly such as this bold fellow checking me out...


The local blue herons had a fondness for tree perching as well...

With the afternoon fading fast, I turned around sooner than I would have preferred and returned to River Street.  I definitely plan to return to this waterway with better gear for beaver dam hopping.

There were 21 pieces of floatable trash recovered today...

Composition was: 19 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 2 pieces of rubbish.  YTD total stands at 5120.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a chalenge. we did keyes brook to stony brook to the pawtucket dam. 9.5 miles. we portaged approx 20 times or more. minimal trash was happy to see that. happy kayaking.

Al said...

Anonymous, Wow! That must have been quite a journey! and a lot of hard work! Congrats!