Thursday, August 23, 2012

Ipswich River's Crown Jewel

Work left me in Ipswich this morning and the river of the same name was just a few stone throws away.  Over the past 2 years or so, I've been chipping away at paddling different sections of this river in Middleton and Danvers.  Today I launched into the Ipswich River from Ipswich Rd. in Topsfield at the Bradley Palmer State Park Canoe Launch...
My objective was to paddle the stretch from the Willowdale Dam upriver to the Bunker Meadows Canoe Landing at the Mass Audubon's Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary in Topsfield.  To do this first required a short downstream paddle to the dam where I turned around and began heading upriver...
To the left of the Willowdale Dam is Foote Bros. Canoe Rentals which has been renting canoes and shuttling paddlers to different upstream locations since 1955.

My trip upriver was a most pleasant one with numerous wildlife encounters and very little trash.  This is the most pristine section of the Ipswich that I've seen to date.  It's hard to imagine any other section of the Ipswich being this beautiful and easy to navigate.  Of course the dam (built in the 1800s) helps to maintain adequate water levels during late summer and fall. 
At Colt Island I stopped for an early lunch before covering the last bit to Bunker Meadows.  Good thing I took my break at Colt Island, as Bunker Meadows was a busy spot with a large group of canoeists preparing to depart...

The most interesting wildlife encounter of my trip happened when I came upon some young beaver kits playing near their lodge.  Upon seeing me, one did a tail slap but with such a small tail, his mates didn't seem to notice.  Mama beaver was on the shore and watching me like a hawk...

On my return trip downriver, I came upon what I believe was either a mink or otter.  Rounding a bend, I briefly saw it in the middle of the river before it ducked under and swam to the shore.  There it raced through the reeds etc. before re-entering the river and disappearing.  Other wildlife seen were herons, ducks, and a hawk.

This section of the river has a good amount of blooming Cardinal flowers such as these...

The Horse Bridge reminded me of Concord's Old North Bridge a bit...



My trash haul was quite small for a 5 mile section of river...
There were 8 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 11 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, an old shoe, and a balloon meant to welcome someone back home.  YTD = 4724


1 comment:

Will said...

I've seen beaver kits swimming around in the morning at that same area of the Ipswich River. We could be seeing the same ones.