Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Recess on the Ipswich River

Having a 3 hour layover between jobs this morning left me tantalizingly close to the Ipswich River and one of its nicer launch sites.  Therefore the decision was an easy one to launch my boat at the Bradley Palmer Canoe Launch (photo at left) in Topsfield and head upriver from there.  More than an inch of rain fell across the area yesterday, and the river was at a nice level.

Beavers look to have been very busy recently, and this photo shows where they've set up shop, so to speak...
The road in the background is Asbury Street.

The only critters seen up and about were a belted kingfisher, a red-tailed hawk, and some mallards.

Trash recovery was fairly typical until I came across this large black plastic bag...
It contained what appeared to be the residue from some group's camping and drinking adventure on the river.  Inside the bag were more than 45 glass beer bottles, soda cans, and plastic containers of food.  How the heck could anyone have allowed it to end up like that?

As I returned to Bradley Palmer, the sun was struggling to put in an appearance...

The day's catch languished hullside...
There were 58 recyclable containers (50 redeemable) and 22 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags, a mylar balloon, and assorted footwear.  YTD = 6837
 
Oddly today, a riverside jogger called out asking if my boat was a "Surge" kayak.  She's owned one herself since 1995 and mentioned being quite satisfied with it.  Ditto that with mine.

 

2 comments:

Erik Eckilson said...

That's quite a haul. I'm off next week - maybe we can get out and paddle something around New Year's. Enjoy the holiday's.

Al said...

Sounds good to me. Hope you also enjoy the Holidays and the time off.