Saturday, June 29, 2013
Assabet Tells a Story
Taking advantage of a lull between rain events, I launched early this morning at Magazu's Landing (Sudbury Road) in Stow. The Assabet River remains at a fairly high level and my trip upriver was into a steady current. After passing over the submerged trestle pilings where the Marlboro Branch of the Boston & Maine Railroad once crossed the river, I enjoyed this view upstream...
Also enjoying the view was this eastern kingbird atop an irrigation pump...
At Fort Meadow Brook I thought about trying to squeeze through the box culvert, but several large spiders had me thinking it might be a little tight and perhaps two spiders too many...
So, I continued up to the Route 62 bridge in Gleasondale (aka Rock Bottom) . The quarter mile below the bridge is where most of today's trash items, etc. were encountered. Picking up the bottles and cans was interrupted by the sight of a Sea to Summit dry bag snagged on a branch. The dry bag, containing a paddlers supplies, obviously meant someone's boat had been upset further upriver and that is something paddlers hope to never see. Items in the bag were a Maynard woman's drivers license, a water-proof disposable camera, two pairs of glasses, sunscreen, and insect repellent.
Upon my arrival home I tried using the address to get a phone number but had no luck. However, when I checked my trashpaddler email there was a message from the very person I was trying to locate....very strange....almost Twilight Zone strange. She related that she had capsized her kayak upriver of Cox Street in Hudson two weeks ago and that the boat, which she's paddled for 15 years, her life jacket and dry bag are missing.
The photo of today's trash haul needed to be cropped to keep the driver's license out of view...
By the way, the artificial limb was not related to the aforementioned incident (and isn't of the human variety).
There were 30 recyclable containers (9 redeemable), 26 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish, and the dry bag containing 8 items that I hope to get back to the owner. YTD = 3166
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5 comments:
It's always good when paddlers are reconnected with their gear. Hopefully she will find her boat. We had a similar experience on the Branch River a couple of weeks ago - except the dry bag was connected to a 16 foot canoe. Boat and gear have been returned to the owner
Erik, Was that the one where you found the owner's cell phone in the dry bag. Boat found while you were retrieving Riverstrider's pinned boat?
That's the one - its been such a crazy summer - I'll bet there have been a lot of lost boats.
I can't imagine how tough it was for Riverstrider to leave the river knowing his boat was pinned with keys and wallet still in it. Must have been some sleepless nights until you all recovered it.
Hope it was repairable.
Update on missing boat:
This morning I met with Kay whose boat went missing on the Assabet River in Hudson on 6/19. She was helping to retrieve a friend's kayak when her own boat went over just downriver of Forest Street. The missing boat is a dark green Perception Keeowee kayak. It has a red and white stripe and has yellow ropes at bow and stern. There may still be a yellow life jacket stuffed behind the boat's seat. When last seen by Kay it was moving at a steady clip downriver towards Rt. 62 and Cox Street. Hopefully, someone will see the boat and notify the Hudson or Stow police.
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