Thursday, May 1, 2014

A Visit to Rocky Narrows


The end of my workday left me less than a mile from the Rocky Narrows section of the Charles River in Sherborn near noon today.  Since the morning's rain had finally subsided, I launched at the Farm Rd. bridge and headed downriver about half a mile before turning about and paddling upriver through the Rocky Narrows (photo at left).
 
This was how the river looked as I started...

...and this is how it looked as I finished...
Finally some time on the water with sun, warmth, and calm conditions.  A very rare commodity this spring.

A red-tailed hawk was serving as a tree-topping decoration for this tall pine...

Up past King Philip's Lookout a CSX local freight stepped lightly across the river...
 
 
 
A family's memorial to a departed loved one...
 
 
On my trip back downriver I stopped at a backwater in order to visit a site described as follows in McAdow's The Charles River... Exploring Nature and History on Foot and by Canoe:
 
"In the woods above the backwater is a gigantic boulder that offers an overhang large enough to shelter a family from the elements.  Here was a natural way station for those whose canoe journeys did not begin and end at automobiles.  Hunters from a prehistoric village at Populatic Pond might have floated down to this point in the space of a day, using their dugout canoes as blinds.  At the overhang the hunter could roast a duck, protected from snow or rain, resting for the arduous paddle back to Populatic Pond."
 
I can almost visualize the hunter under the overhang...
 
The boulder's underside is blackened from fires both long ago and more recent. Nearby some mushrooms are available to garnish the duck...
 
Trash today was most prevalent above and below the Farm Rd. bridge, the area of the railroad bridge, and King Philip's Lookout.  My haul...
There were 85 recyclable containers (45 redeemable) and 34 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish. 
YTD = 1738
This cockpit of a small airplane was recovered as well...
  Looks like the pilot safely ejected.
 




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