Magazu's Landing to Ice House Landing

Late this morning, I launched for the first time from the recently completed Magazu's Landing at Sudbury Road in Stow.  The landing has a set of granite stairs with a handrail leading down to the Assabet River's edge.  The project was spearheaded by a local Eagle Scout candidate who was helped by volunteers.  Access to the river is much improved while the potential for erosion has been minimized.  This photo shows the well-built stairs and railing...

As you can see, Old Man Winter was serving appetizers this morning.  I'm hoping he holds off  a while longer before serving the main course.
At any rate, Ice House Landing in Maynard seemed an appropriate destination on a day such as this.

Heading downriver I came upon this beaver lodge with a beaver-built roadway winding its way to the top...

Looks like he's been busy getting ready for tonight's "Beaver Moon".

 

The nearby cove is looking a bit wintry...

 

 

While taking a photo of a perched red-tailed hawk, a belted kingfisher chattered his way into the shot...

 

 

By the time I reached Ice House Landing, the sun was beginning to break through the clouds...

 

Those blocks of ice left laying around the landing never seem to melt.

 

At the terrestrial entrance to Ice House Landing stands this nicely inscribed granite post...

 

 

On my trip back upriver I encountered this osprey near Crow Island...

 

And a blue heron flying low over the ice...

 

 

A modest amount of trash was recovered along the way...

 

Most of the hiding places have now been exposed due to denuded foliage.  There were 22 recyclable containers (11 redeemable) and 12 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish.  YTD = 6594

 

I forgot to mention, in last Saturday's post, a nice medicine bottle found at the mouth of Spencer Brook.  It was an amber 6.5 ounce cork-top bottle embossed with the following: Sylpho-Nathol by Cabot's.  Sylpho-Nathol was a coal tar-based disinfectant/antiseptic made in Boston during the late 1800s and early 1900s.  One advertising slogan was "Keep your nose and throat clean".  The company, Cabot's, is still in business making wood staining products.

















FAT in Babbitasset, SAT near Punkatasset

The following are accounts of efforts taken to work-off  a portion of our 2012 Thanksgiving feast.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving (FAT) Mrs. Trashpaddler and I trash pedalled the Nashua River Rail Trail from Ayer to Babbitasset Village located a short distance from Babbitasset Falls on the Nashua River.  Until yesterday, I didn't know this Native American place name for the village and falls at East Pepperell.  I stumbled upon the Babbitasset name while doing some online research into the history of Pepperell's Railroad Square.
Speaking of Native American place names, there is an interesting article in the November/December issue of Yankee Magazine written by Justin Shatwell concerning efforts of the Wampanoag people in resurrecting their nearly lost language, Wopannak.  It was the language the Pilgrims heard spoken by their native hosts back at the first Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth.

Today on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (SAT) I launched my boat at the Calf Pasture (Lowell Road) under the trailing clouds (opening photo) of a cold front that was in the process of sweeping away our recent warm weather.  I heeded the advice of Nathaniel Hawthorne who said this regarding the Assabet River on a windy day: "...It is sheltered from the breeze by woods and a hillside; so that elsewhere there might ne a hurricane, and here scarcely a ripple across the shaded water."  I paddled the Assabet from Egg Rock to Spencer Brook and back, and found truth in Hawthorne's words.
A deceased white-tailed deer was floating in the river near Dove Rock...

At the mouth of Spencer Brook I turned around after recovering someone's old tire re-cap.

Once back at the Calf Pasture, I continued to paddle down the Concord River to Sawmill Brook where I found refuge from the wind thanks to the blocking effect of the hills Punkatasset and Buttricks.  By the time I'd turned back, blue skies had returned...

 

 

Paddling back to the Calf Pasture I couldn't resist turning about to enjoy the site of the Old North Bridge basking in the sunlight...

 

A photo of today's catch...

This aquatic patrol netted 17 recyclable containers (7 redeemable) and 26 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, nip bottles, styrofoam, and the tire re-cap.

 

A photo of yesterday's rail trail catch...

The terrestrial patrol netted 17 recyclable containers (6 redeemable) and 5 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish.

 

YTD = 6560

 





Down to Damondale and Back

On this busiest travel day of the year I had it easy thanks to my workday starting at daybreak and ending before noon.  This left me without a memorable or difficult journey home for Thanksgiving.  Therefore, I decided to create my own small journey home (of sorts) by first paddling a local stretch of the Assabet River from the Acton Canoe Launch down to Damondale Mill (photo at left).  The trip was almost effortless with a nice current, though a little bumpy due to shallow water. 

Along the way these cardinals really stood out against the bare shrubbery...

A blue heron enjoyed some sunshine at the base of a ridge...

  This beaver kept a wary eye on me...

 

 

It turned out that 2 of his buddies had wandered a fair distance from the river.  When I rounded the next bend one slid quickly down the riverbank while the other was trapped briefly behind a chicken-wire fence.  If I'd been quicker on the draw, a picture of a large beaver behind bars would have been mine.  Alas, he remembered needing to slide under the fence, and he hit the water much like an otter.

 

After turning around at Damondale I began my self-imposed mini journey home against a shallow flowing current.  I steadfastly clawed my way upriver by trying to find the routes where water was deep enough to paddle.  Like John Walton trying to get back to Walton's Mountain, I overcame obstacle after obstacle until this one section forced my exit from the boat...

 

Towing my boat through the shallows, I thought about that first Thanksgiving here in Massachusetts 391 years ago.  Descendants of the Pilgrim attendees remember it fondly.  Descendants of the Wampanoag attendees, not so much.  Sadly, it's beginning to look, more and more, like the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is going to get short-changed in their efforts to build a gaming casino in southeastern Massachusetts.  Seems there's a "Catch-22" of sorts in the Federal regulations that may preclude the tribe from placing a piece of property into a required trust.  Complicating things further, the State's recently drawn up Compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag was rejected by the Feds for being too exploitive of the Tribe (imagine that).  I guess some things just never change.  My Thanksgiving hope is that both the State and Federal governments will remember why the US Congress created the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988:  "The Act's purpose is to provide a statutory basis for the operation of gaming by tribes to promote tribal economic development, self-sufficiency, and strong tribal governments." 

 

Finally I reached the river landing in Acton and unloaded the day's catch before heading up the hill to my home...

There were 12 recyclable containers (9 redeemable) and 31 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, a balloon, and nip bottles.  YTD = 6495

 

Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving. 



Portal into Ft. Meadow Brook Open Again

This afternoon's paddle on the Assabet River included a pleasant surprise.  The fallen tree and beaver-built barricade that were blocking access to Fort Meadow Brook last month (10/12/12) had both been removed, thus allowing access to the lower section of Fort Meadow Brook in Stow.  My thanks to those responsible.  Paddling through the box culvert (photo at left taken from the brook side) takes a paddler out of the river environment and into the narrow meanders of the brook up to the long abandoned Mass Central RR trestle...

As you can see in the photo the beavers have regrouped at this locale and built another dam.  The trestle in the background forms a larger dam, of sorts, and has a considerable area of ponded water behind it.
After enjoying my visit to this remote-feeling locale, I returned to the Assabet and continued heading upriver on a beautiful late November afternoon...

Just beyond the 2nd river crossing of the old Marlboro Branch RR, I heard the distinctive 4 or 5 short whistles the osprey emits just before he takes flight.  It seems lately the osprey are seeing me before I see them. 

After pushing through this narrow fordway, I turned around and began the downriver portion of my trip...

A pair of mute swans graciously moved out of my way...

Back at Sudbury Road my crateload of trash was called to order...

There were the usual suspects: 17 recyclable containers (2 redeemable) and 26 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish including nip bottles, styrofoam, and plastic bags.  YTD = 6452


A Starker Look to the Sudbury River

By 10 am things had warmed up enough to launch my boat into the Sudbury River at River Road in Wayland.  I headed upriver intending to see if the construction project at the Pelham Island Road Bridge (photo at left) was allowing boat traffic.  On my last visit to the area, in late June, construction had blocked passage to boats.  Today, passage was possible.
Shortly after getting underway, I encountered the plastic trash barrel usually stationed at the Route 20 boat launch, about a mile upriver.  I decided to bring the barrel back to that location since it was on my way.  About one tenth of a mile before reaching Route 20 a floating computer monitor was encountered.  Both the barrel and monitor were left at the boat ramp...

The trash barrel is maintained there by the group Big Heart Little Feet.

Continuing my trip upriver I encountered some one-stop trash shopping at the old Mass Central railroad trestle...

After 20 minutes of work, the area looked better and my fo'c'sle container was full...

Behind Wayland High School several osprey were seen...

At the Greenways this bird was seen...

I'm not sure if it's an osprey or perhaps a northern harrier?


At Indian Point some additional trash was snagged behind a fallen tree.  Just a bit further upriver the narrow channel leading to Heard Pond was noted to have been blocked by beavers...

This became my turnaround point and I began heading back to River Road.  At the Greenways, all passengers stepped briefly ashore for some leg stretching...

Quite a hodgepodge today: 42  recyclable containers (10 redeemable) and 51 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish including 2 life jackets, a broken plastic milk crate, a half full paint can, a plastic 5-gallon pail, and the usual nip bottles, plastic bags, and styrofoam items.  YTD = 6409

Once I reached River Road I couldn't resist paddling just a little ways beyond Rt. 27 and taking a look at the old multi-arched bridge to nowhere in the late afternoon sun...

A Dandy Dalliance on the Danvers River

Mother Nature seemed to be in an apologetic mood today and was rewarding us all for putting up with her wild mood swings these past few weeks.  I, for one, was willing to forgive and forget while launching my boat into the Danvers River.  Work had brought me earlier in the day to Cape Ann and those work-related chores were wrapped up just as the sun began to burn through the clouds.  I ask you, how could I have driven past the fine boat launch at Pope's Landing on a day such as this?  Temperatures were in the upper 60's!
I began my trip downriver to Beverly Pier one hour after high tide, and the ebb was just beginning to get started.  Water levels were still high enough, however, to provide access to washed up trash along the riverbanks that slope down from the Kernwood Country Club golf course.  Nearly all of today's trash was found along that stretch of river.

Once past the Essex Bridge (opening photo), I turned around and began heading upriver.  The flow of water draining out of the adjacent North River was being boosted by a strong southwest wind resulting in a sideways current under the Essex Bridge.

On the way back I stopped to check out these faded images on the side of a Danversport fishing (?)shack...

They may be commemorating an event that occurred in Danversport back in revolutionary times.

Today's bounty from the sea (shore)...

There were 41 recyclable containers (15 redeemable) and 59 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, and styrofoam cups.  YTD = 6301


   

Hot Air in Short Supply on the Sudbury River

After a busy couple of weeks, Mr. Windmachine finally took a break and was caught sleeping-in early this morning.  Hoping not to awaken him, I quietly tip-paddled up the Sudbury River from the Lincoln Canoe Launch (opening photo). 
In one of the backwaters I saw my first river-surface ice of the season...

The temperature was around 28 degrees F at launching, and my wetsuit had been pressed into service for the first time this season...amazing how much it shrank over the summer.

Paddling past the Nashawtuc golf course I heard what sounded like a fire-breathing dragon, and soon saw its head rise above the tops of the trees...

Pulling back a bit, I watched it approach the river...

I stopped to admire the hot air balloon but soon noticed it was descending rather close to the trees...

It continued downward until coming into contact with terra firma...

Of course I have no way of knowing if this was a planned landing or not.  My guess is that it wasn't.  After a bit, several people came to assist the balloonist in relocating the balloon to a more open area.
Not far from this location many gunshot volleys were heard from duckhunters within the Pantry Brook area.  Probably unlikely, but I did wonder if, perhaps, the balloon might have developed a small hole or two from errant "duckshot".

I continued upriver to Sherman's Bridge and turned around there to find Mr. Windmachine was now stirring.

At Weir Hill I'm always reminded of a winter overnight spent in a cabin there back when I was a 13 year old  Boyscout.  Having been from the city of Waltham, this seemed like wilderness to me and after finishing my turn on firewatch at dawn, I'd walked down to the river and thought of the Native Americans who once caught fish at this spot...

Could have sworn I felt a spirit presence at that moment, almost 50 years ago.

Returning to the present, I headed back downriver and encountered Dan paddling his very nice Placid Boatworks canoe...

It's the "Shadow" model and Dan reported being very pleased with it.  Oddly enough I'd been recently looking into canoes by Placid Boatworks and other solo-canoe makers due to issues with my lower back.   I'm seriously considering switching to an open boat which I can paddle from either a sitting or kneeling position.  Adirondack Pirate Paddler Tom E. has a Placid Boatworks "RapidFire" model which also looks like a possible option (if kneeling is possible).  The Hemlock Canoe Works "Kestral" also looks interesting.

I paddled past the Lincoln Canoe Launch and headed further downriver towards Fairhaven Bay.  As I entered the bay, I saw these two bald eagles circling high above the bay's south end...

Their white heads and tails can just barely be seen.

At the small island in the bay I found Mr. Happy and Mr. Notso Happy had apparently had a fight resulting in both being found damaged and laying on the ground.  Subsequently, they were added to my small trash haul back at the takeout...

There were 10 recyclable containers (6 redeemable) and 5 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish. 
YTD = 6216