Friday, April 20, 2012

Sudbury River in Wayland and Earth Week Stuff

This morning's patrol of the Sudbury River in Wayland proved challenging for anything trying to stay afloat.  The # 7 buoy, pictured at left, is losing the battle.  There was barely enough water to keep my hull from scraping bottom in places.  Hopefully, the rain being predicted for the upcoming weekend will remedy the situation.
After launching at River Road, I headed upriver and encountered 2 automobile tires in the first mile.  Also encountered were red-winged blackbirds, Canada geese, mute swans, great blue herons, killdeers, and many musquash such as this one...
This musquash seemed to be enjoying the low water levels, and I suspect the herons were finding better than average fishing since the fish had far fewer places to hide.

The Canada geese in this photo are enjoying some elevated water levels where beavers created a pond from damming Wash Brook...
They also get to enjoy a nice view of Nobscot Hill in the distance.

The Pelham Island Road bridge is undergoing some construction work.  This view is looking downriver...
On the bridge's downstream side is a newly constructed structure for carrying a pipe or conduit across the river.

My turnaround point was about a half mile upstream from the Heard Pond outlet where today's catch stretched out hullside on recently exposed gravelbar...
There were 30 recyclable containers (13 redeemable) and 28 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, styrofoam, and the aforementioned tires.  Thanks to the Wayland Highway Dept. for helping to properly dispose of the tires.

This Earth Week also saw a Monday terrestrial walking patrol...

and a Tuesday trashpedalling of the Nashua River Rail Trail...

Totals for these two patrols were 26 recyclable containers (8 redeemable) and 20 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish.
YTD = 1956



2 comments:

Paddle2See said...

That's a lot of trash! I'm always blown away by how much you manage to pull in on your kayak. We get some trash on our runs...but nothing to compare with what you get. You are an inspiration, keep up the good work.

Al said...

Thanks Paddle2See. It's not so much the amount of trash but rather that we leave it a little better than we found it.
I just happen to get satisfaction from packing a kayak with trash (or camping gear:)