Palmer Paddlin'

Launched into the Palmer River from Providence Street in Rehoboth, MA about 3 hours after yesterday morning's high tide.  My boat and I then went with the flow as it wended its way through stands of phragmites en route to wider and saltier waters further to the south.

A pair of cormorants had this rock at the mouth of Rocky Run Brook staked out...

After passing under a busy Route 195 I reached the quieter Route 6 where the Clam Shack and its parked truck stimulated my always healthy appetite for seafood...

Unfortunately, the Clam Shack was closed for the season.

After passing under the historic location of Myles Bridge...

...the Palmer River widens as it approaches the border with Rhode Island and becomes more of a shallow bay.  My map now refers to it as the Warren River.   At the southern end of this bay the Warren is funneled under the East Bay Bike Path bridge and Route 114.  I reached this point just before the scheduled low tide expecting to find slack water, but instead found water still rushing between the bridge piers.

Lunch was taken on the Barrington side of the river just upstream of the 2 bridges.  This area is near the foot of a peninsula called New Meadow Neck and Thomas Williams Bicknell in his 1908 published Sowams:With Ancient Records of Sowams and Parts Adjacent makes the case that it was on New Meadow Neck that the Wampanoag Sachem known to colonists as Massasoit maintained his lodge.  While eating I wondered just how close his lodge site might be from where I dined.  The colonists originally called the Warren River  "Sowams River" and the Palmer River was considered its east branch.  The Barrington River entering from the peninsula's west side was considered Sowam's west branch.

After lunch the ebb finally began to slacken and I passed beneath the bridges and by the old Samsonite factory...

The Barrington River merged in from the right and both rivers then head towards Adams Point and Rumstick Point enroute to Narragansett Bay beyond...

The village of Warren, RI  on the river's east side has a waterfront busy with restaurants, marinas, a seafood plant, and this marine railway facility...

 

The Blount Small Ships fleet is berthed here...

Blount Seafood Products is also a presence...

 ...according to Wikipedia this company was founded by F. Nelson Blount who also came to own Edaville Railroad and later founded the living railroad museum Steamtown.

It being such a beauty of a day, the Warren River was soon hosting sailboats, a stand-up paddle boarder, and several powerboats.

 

However, once I began my return upriver and passed beyond Rt. 114 and the bike path, I saw but one other boater, a fellow kayaker.

 

 

Reaching Myles Bridge I realized that the tide wasn't yet ready to accompany me, and shallow conditions still prevailed...



Just beyond Myles Bridge were these barnacle-covered wooden piers that long ago supported some kind of structure spanning the river...

...perhaps a fish weir?

My choice was to wait for the tide to bring more water, or push on through the shallows in order to reach Providence Street before dark.  This I did getting to my car some 3 hours after the scheduled low tide for Barrington/Warren.  I'm guessing it would have taken another hour of so for tidewater to reach Providence Street.

Some trash gathered up along the way...

 

 

This interesting iron relic was encountered on a spit of sand...

It was propped against a stone for the photo and then returned to the sand.