Blackstone from Plummer's

Work brought me to the Blackstone Valley yesterday and left me with a few hours to kill before the next job.  Plummer's Landing in Northbridge (photo at left) was just down the road and provided easy access to the Blackstone River.  After launching and heading downriver, I recalled paddling through this stretch while participating in the Blackstone River Race back in 2004 and 2005.  Shallow and twisty with gravel bars in some places, then others where it gets deeper and a lot less twisty...

  

About a half mile below Plummer's, where the river originally twisted left, a majority of the flow is now taking the easier route into the Blackstone Canal...



...leaving the original course with insufficient flow for paddling.  Subsequently, I went with the flow down the canal only a short distance before turning around due to many trees across the channel...

After paddling and pulling my boat back to Plummer's, I headed upriver about half a mile...

At a location where the railroad runs close to the river, it appears the river was moved to the eastward and straightened saving the railroad two river crossings.  The Blackstone Canal, running empty and parallel to the river, ends abruptly where the tracks now cross...

 

Trash wasn't bad with most having been rounded-up at snags.   The group looked like they'd been in the water for awhile...