Saturday, April 22, 2017

Earth Day Close to Home

Paddled the Assabet River between Waltham Street in Maynard and Acton's Powder Mill Dam last Wednesday afternoon.  Even had a little sunshine.

Not a bad little stretch of river, with Route 62 running parallel to the east and a mostly wooded slope rising up from the west shore.

Until the trees leaf-out Acton's wastewater treatment plant remains visible on that wooded slope...

A path runs along the base of the wooded slope and where it passes the outfall for Maynard's wastewater treatment plant is this boundary marker with an "S" on one side...
...and an "A" on the other...
Could this marker date to the days before the town of Maynard was incorporated in 1871?  If so this stone would've marked the boundary between the towns of Acton and Stow.


On the river's east side just above the dam...
...perhaps as many as 20 dead fish were floating...


A fair amount of trash was encountered trapped behind snags or along the riverbank...

Seeing way more trash than I had room for, I decided to return this Earth Day morning and gather up more of the plastic/Styrofoam flotsam...


While on Wednesday I launched from the Elks parking lot in Maynard, this morning I entered the river at the foot of Old High St. in Acton.

Today's weather wasn't ideal but these tree swallows didn't seem to mind...

Heading upriver I wondered how much trash finds its way into the river from this cluster of dumpsters...
 ...located behind a strip mall.  Out of sight, out of mind?

My upriver progress came to an end below the Waltham St. bridge...

Saw two canoes heading downriver and suspect they portaged Old High Street, re-launched into this old millrace, and paddled on towards Concord...

Certainly looks doable at these water levels.




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