Saturday, December 7, 2013

A Still Open Concord River

Most of last night's light dusting of snow had melted by the time I launched into the Concord River at Lowell Rd.  Above freezing temperatures and partly cloudy skies provided decent paddling conditions.  In fact, as I was preparing to get underway, voices were heard out on the river from a tandem kayak heading downstream.  The two fellows paddling told me they were heading to Lowell with a planned portage of the dam at Billerica.  They also mentioned (if I understood them correctly) their intention of paddling the last 2 miles of whitewater to the river's confluence with the Merrimack. 
I wished them good luck and watched them  head downriver...

They were soon out of sight, and hardly a ripple remained (opening photo) as I then headed in the same direction.

Just before the landing at Great Meadows I encountered this red-tailed hawk methodically plucking feathers from his next meal...
Later, on my return trip upriver the hawk was gone.  I examined the remains to find what seemed to be another hawk ensnared in the branches.

At Davis Hill and the long straight section of river I caught a last glimpse of the tandem kayak before turning about and heading back upriver...
Hope they made it to Lowell before running out of daylight.

Trash was on the light side today though I did recover an automobile tire near Great Meadows Landing. 

Soon I approached the Old North Bridge ...

Yet another blue heron taking a gamble by sticking around these parts...
If I had wings I'd be long gone by now.

My trash haul...
There were 18 recyclable containers (5 redeemable) and 9 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish including the tire and 2 mylar balloons.

I also include here the haul from last Thursday's scouting of a boat launch site on the East Branch Ware River...
This one had 7 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 8 pieces of rubbish.  YTD = 6228

On the way home I noted many vehicles carrying rooftop cargo.  However, unlike mine, their rooftop loads were of the shrubbery variety.

Hats off to the citizens of Concord for beating back another attempt to repeal the town's ban on single use plastic water bottles (1 liter or less)!

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