Staying-in-Home Waters

Do to the virus my paddling world has shrunk, and presently I'm using launch sites within a 6 mile radius of my home.  As limiting as that may sound, in truth, it's not so bad for I'm fortunate in having several rivers within that circle to choose from.  The photo above was taken from a spot on the Assabet River in Stow within 4 miles of my home.

This past week's paddles have covered two sections of the Assabet River, and the upper bit of the Concord River.

On this past Wednesday another bald eagle was encountered on the Stow section of the Assabet near the mouth of Fort Meadow Brook...

...and another day-dreaming beaver above Crow Island...

On Friday the Concord section of the Assabet provided a different look and feel...

...including the Main St. bridge in West Concord dating to 1886...

 ...and thanks to a short diversion from the Assabet my paddling brought me up Nashoba Brook past the brook's namesake bakery...

My week ended yesterday on April 19th (the traditional Patriot's Day holiday in Massachusetts), with a paddle to the Concord River's Old North Bridge.  Ordinarily I'd avoid this place (like the plague) on either the present legal or traditional holiday to avoid all the hoopla. However, yesterday I found it pretty much deserted...

...with the obelisk looking lonely on the side where the British soldiers assembled...

 ...and the farmer/minuteman standing on the opposite side...

...ready to cross the bridge...

The bridge was important because the British force needed to cross it in en route to one of their main objectives...a suspected store of weapons at a provincial commander Col. James Barrett's farm lying some 2 miles distant.  Once across the bridge they left some men behind to secure the bridge for their later return.

I paddled a water route (Concord and Assabet rivers) roughly parallel to their 2 mile march from the bridge to Barrett's farm.  After landing and ascending the riverbank I looked across to the farm house...

 ...probably close to the same time of morning as the British soldiers were searching the house without success.

A closer look from the appropriately named Barrett's Mill Road...

...of the farm house restored to its 1775 appearance.

Back then, some 245 years ago, the Minutemen were our "First Responders".  On April 19th 2020 the folks answering the alarm are our doctors and nurses who are putting their own lives at risk for us.

The water level continues to slowly decline revealing another few words of the Egg Rock inscription...

..."On the Hill Nashawtuck At the Meeting of the Rivers...'

Even though I'm paddling many of the same waters these days, nonetheless, I'm noticing things not noticed before such as this strange wood board bolted to a granite post...

It's just downstream and adjacent to the Route 2 bridge over the Assabet River and near Assabet Ave.  Anyone know what its purpose is/was?