Monday, July 18, 2016

Cape Ann Encircled

It's the high point of my summer...4 days and 3 nights camping and paddling on Cape Ann.

Before paddling around the Cape with some 317 other participants in this year's Blackburn Challenge, I spent a few days enjoying the Annisquam River from its namesake lighthouse at one end (photo above) to the Blynman Canal Drawbridge at the other...


The view from my tent at Cape Ann Camp Site looked out upon the Jones River...
...which afforded me access to the Annisquam.
 
Paddling along the Annisquam I encountered this boat...
...proving, as I always suspected, that Josey didn't spend his last days in Texas.

Of course it being Blackburn Challenge weekend, it's only fitting to see dories on the water...

...and even better to see one with two guys pulling hard as they passed Ten Pound Island Lighthouse...


Reaching the finish line at the Greasy Pole was Saturday's major objective for Blackburn rowers and paddlers...

Reminders of Gloucester's past such as the old Tarr and Wonsen Copper Paint (for hulls of boats) factory built in 1863 still stand...

...and the Gloucester Fishermen's Memorial near the Man at the Wheel Statue on Stacey Boulevard...
...which lists the names of fishermen lost at sea during each year since colonial times.  The year of Howard Blackburn's ordeal in 1883 was a particularly bad year with a long list of names.  Included among them was Howard's dorymate Thomas Welch...

Only a short distance away a more modern face of Gloucester has taken shape in the form of the recently opened Beauport Hotel...
...where the old Birdseye refrigerated plant long stood.

Around town banners displaying cast members of the television show "Wicked Tuna" hawk related merchandise...


While paddling the Annisquam a bit of trash in one little cove was gathered up from a spot which seems to have a magnetic attraction for flotsam...
 ...and a few lingering Hookset disks...


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