Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Damondale Mill from Below

On this unseasonably cool morning I launched into the Assabet River at Pine Street in Concord and paddled up to Damondale, the one-time textile mill in West Concord.  The brick structure was built in 1862 to replace a wooden one destroyed by fire.  In the 1980's the mill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and completely refurbished.  

As I neared the mill and dam from downstream, I left the river-proper and entered the mill's old outlet canal which formerly allowed work-exhausted water to return to the river...

Passing under Route 62 and a pair of footbridges brought me to the mill's face...

The view upward from this spot can be seen in the opening photo.
 
Looking downward my eyes met those of the structure's guardian...

  ...whose only words were "none shall pass".  So...I turned about and returned to the river...

Once back on the Assabet proper, the trip back to Pine Street went quickly thanks to flow from last night's thunderstorms.

This heron enjoyed a little break 'high and dry'...

The day's trash haul from this one mile stretch of river...
There were 20 recyclable containers (3 redeemable) and 43 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as plastic bags and Styrofoam.  YTD = 2590

3 comments:

Karen said...

Thanks for your posts. You and Ron McAdow are my paddle guides!

Lis said...

Glad you opted to turn back. That Black Knight is one mean frog. Just imagine the flesh wounds you might have had to inflict ;)

Al said...

At best it would have ended as a draw.