Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cleared for Takeoff on the Concord River

As I headed to my last worksite this morning, a post-work paddle didn't look to be in the cards.  After driving through thunderstorms, I arrived at the last stop and upon wrapping things up, the sun began to peek out.  Between the time I left work and launched into the Concord River on Rt. 225 in Bedford, the sky was mostly blue (at left).  Hardly believing my good fortune, I headed upriver into a pleasant breeze.  This stretch of the Concord is nearly straight and has a bigger feel...
Trash was encountered on the upstream side of the Rt. 225 bridge and was mostly from shore fishermen who frequent the area.  Some of them have begun placing their trash into plastic bags hung from trees.  These bags provide a scenic quality.  The white bag hanging from a tree on the Bedford side looks sort of like a trash "pinata"!

During the trip upriver numerous aircraft were observed taking off from nearby Hanscom Field.  When I turned around and began my trip downriver, I felt that if I was to paddle fast enough, I too might become airborne...
Since that didn't happen, I stayed in contact with the river and thought about a recent question from my grandson.  He asked "what is the most numerous lifeform in the universe?".  The word that pops into my mind now, two weeks after he asked the question, is "copepod".  Once home, I googled the word and found Wikepedia stating that either copepods or possibly Antartic krill comprise the "largest animal biomass on Earth".  Well, glad that's settled.

A little detour was taken into a short channel connecting to a small and shallow pond.  The channel provided a shady respite before returning to the river proper...
Today's trash haul included another plastic milk crate which became my boat's fo'c'sle.  The crew enjoyed the open-air feeling it provided as opposed to being below deck.  Officers, of course, remained amidships.
Passengers and crew from both above and below deck assembled hullside before going their separate ways...
There were 33 recyclable containers (10 redeemable) and 22 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as bait tubs, fishing bobber, plastic bags, and some well corroded beer cans.  YTD = 4696



2 comments:

Mark Mayall said...

Not some kind of bacterium? In terms of number if not biomass?

Al said...

Mark, Bacterium would be more numerous but I was thinking of those animal life forms which can be seen with the naked eye.