Saturday, August 23, 2014

Athol to Orange Via the Millers

This morning I re-visited the Millers River in Athol and paddled it down to Orange Center and back.  I launched from the Alan E. Rich Environmental Park in Athol which is located about a quarter of a mile below the Millers River's confluence with the Tully River.  The water level was OK and skies varied between clouds and sun.

Just before reaching Rowlandson Rock, I passed under the Pan AM Railways bridge and turned around in time to see a train of empty automobile transport cars heading west...
Strange to see a Burlington Northern - Santa Fe locomotive on what was once known as the Fitchburg Division of the Boston and Maine Railroad.  Today this section of railroad is called the Pan AM Southern Patriot Corridor.

At Rowlandson Rock I hiked up the riverbank to get a closer look at this historical marker...
Quite a bit of trash littered the woods alongside the roadway's guardrail.

The view into Mill Brook which flows into the Millers from Lake Rohunta...

Looks like some fishermen nailed trash bags to a tree and filled them...
Do you suppose they'll be hauling them out?

Arriving at Orange and my turnaround point just before the dam...

The boat launch at Orange Riverfront Park...

  On the way back upriver I came across this piece of trash which was already spoken for...

Here's some Caribbean flavored trash...

The day's haul...
There were 46 recyclable containers (13 redeemable) and 64 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as Styrofoam and plastic bags.  YTD = 3879

It's interesting to note there were 27 empty water, juice, or Gatorade containers.  These are the containers which will become redeemable if voters elect to expand our state's Bottle Bill in November.  The proposal will certainly have my vote.

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