A Bit Nippy on the Assabet

 

It only took a half mile of paddling down the Assabet River from Cox Street in Hudson yesterday to realize that unusually high numbers of nip bottles were being encountered.  Another half mile produced the pile sitting atop my boat's rear hatch cover.  As a rule I no longer count the trash picked up, but on this day I made an exception and counted 83 nip bottles at trip's end.  That's a record number in all my travels.  

One thing for sure is that the littering of nip bottles is getting worse in Massachusetts and, from what I hear, in most other states as well .  The state of Maine placed a 5 cent deposit on nip bottles in 2017.  Would such a deposit help here?  I don't see how it wouldn't.  However in my opinion the deeper issue is that these small containers of hard liquor are being tossed aside by folks wanting to get rid of the evidence of drinking on the job.  A deposit won't help in that regard.    

Yesterday was a decent day to be out on this picturesque stretch of the Assabet...

 It's only about 2 miles down to the dam at Gleasondale where I turned about and headed back upriver.

Sunday night's rainstorm provided enough water for me to pass around the end of a fallen tree above Cox Street.  This allowed my first passage through the abandoned Central Mass RR trestle in quite awhile...

The nip bottles retained top billing when joined by their larger plastic associates...