Monday, May 28, 2012

Ambling Down the Assabet River

This morning,  Erik of Open Water, Moving Water and I ambled down the Assabet River from the Acton Canoe Launch to Lowell Road in Concord.  In addition to being an ideal day to be on the water, our jaunt provided Erik a chance to do reconnaissance in preparation for a group trip he'll be leading in early June.  Cloudy conditions forecast for the day never materialized and skies remained clear and sunny.  The Assabet River Gauge in Maynard was at 2.1 ' and at this level, things are just starting to get a little shallow in places.

At the breached Damonmill dam, passage was smooth and easy.  Here is Erik moving through the opening in the dam...
and heading towards the gravel bars between the dam and Rt. 62...

Right from the start we observed a good many folks fishing.  Some were fly-fishing while others were using lures or bait; some from shore, some standing in the river, and some from canoes.  However, it was this fish and frog catcher who struck the most dignified pose of the day...

After successfully conquering the most recent blowdown halfway between Damondale and Pine Street, we enjoyed smooth paddling for the remainder of the way to Egg Rock.  The Lowell Road boat launch, near the junction of the Sudbury and Concord rivers, was teeming with paddlecraft of all kinds...

Our joint effort trash haul continued its drying process on the sunlit shore...

There were 16 recyclable containers (2 redeemable) and 6 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, styrofoam cups, and a nip bottle.  YTD = 2843

3 comments:

Erik Eckilson said...

Thanks for joining me today Al. Sorry to paddle and run, but I did get home on time. Hope you can join us next week.

Cheryl Thompson cameron said...

Great blog Al I felt like I was there! Hope to paddle with you on Saturday

Al said...

Thanks Cheryl, I'm looking forward to paddling with you folks!