Wanting to explore a new section of the Charles River had me studying my copy of Ron McAdow's The Charles River: Exploring Nature and History on Foot and by Canoe last night. The section of river selected was the one he refers to as "Bays Region" between South Natick Dam and Cochrane Dam.
Early this morning I launched from Red Wing Bay in Needham, just above Cochrane Dam, and headed upriver.
It was immediately apparent that there's still a little fall foliage left in places...
The cold temperatures required gloves which impeded getting at my camera in time to catch a photo of 3 white-tailed deer crossing someone's yard.
Fortunately, during this coldest part of the day, the wind had yet to awaken as can be seen approaching the Central Street bridge...
Further along was one of the longer straightaways paddled this morning...
Ducks (both mallards and wood ducks) were plentiful, yet I saw no hunters.
The largest concentration of trash was in the area of the Waban Arches which can be seen rising above Waban Brook...
After paddling around the Elm Bank Peninsula I caught sight of someone's laughing choppers...
After rounding a few more bends I arrived at the South Natick Dam...
One nice touch noted on this stretch of the Charles River were signs such as this one...
My trash haul prior to classification...
YTD = 5490
2 comments:
What a beautiful morning. Although it is functional the Sudbury Aqueduct is no longer used for water supply. The sources for the aqueduct are the three Framingham reservoirs (Stearns, Bracket and Foss). This system was upgraded when the Sudbury Dam (Fayville Dam) was built to meet the growing demand. That was followed by the Wachusett Reservoir and then finally the Quabbin Reservoir. Unfortunatly the Sudbury aqueduct cannot be used as a backup supply due to contamination of the Sudbury River by Nyanza Corp. Those original aqueducts were gravity systems hence the arches over the lowlands. I could talk about the water supply system all day, a marvel of engineering in its time.
Anonymous, Thanks for providing the information on the Sudbury Aqueduct's past and current status. It is an impressive looking structure, especially when seen from Waban Brook.
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