Friday, July 9, 2021

Pass the Salt Please

 

It'd been too long since my boat and I rode atop water of a salty nature.  This past Wednesday on what turned out to be a near perfect morning I paddled past little Annisquam Lighthouse (above).  Earlier on my way up the Annisquam River I beached for an early morning swim...

Had the spot to myself and enjoyed the strong current of the tide flowing in from Ipswich Bay.  If only I could start every day like this.

Paddled over to Folly Cove stopping briefly in Lanes Cove along the way.

My base of operations was the 1949 established Cape Ann Camp Site where I've camped many a year...

Before setting up camp on Tuesday I poked around the Annisquam noting the commuter rail drawbridge undergoing a total rebuild...
It was a busy site with a multitude of workers and equipment hard at it.

In another corner of the Annisquam a rocky nook drew me in upon seeing some reddish coloring on a flat-faced rock...

The remains of the coloring was clearest under a small overhang...
...and reminded me of a Native American pictograph I'd visited up in western Maine.  The work of kids with time on their hands, or perhaps something older??  The five nearest roads are all named for Native Americans...hmm.

The A. Piatt Andrew Bridge carries Rt. 128 above the tidal river...

Took advantage of the slack conditions at high tide to exit the Annisquam through the "Cut" and see a bit of Gloucester Harbor...

Eastern Point Light loomed at the harbor's outer edge...

Plenty of history noted in the area of Stage Fort Park... 

...though this marker could use some paint...


At the busy roadway drawbridge this marker commemorates the Puritan minister who dug the ditch used today by countless vessels... 



While looking for additional info on Rev. Blynman on the blog Enduring Gloucester I came across this interesting article "1644 A Turning Point in Cape Ann History" by Mary Ellen Lepionka ".


It would be hard to leave Gloucester without visiting the "Man at the Wheel"...
It'd also be hard to leave Cape Ann without some Lobsta Land haddock chowder and fried clams from Farnham's in neighboring Essex.

At the start of the week on Independence Day I paddled a bit of the Assabet River and came across this heron...

...and the Fort Meadow Brook box culvert where a paddle thru was out of the question...

With water levels already high, where is all the rain from Tropical Storm Elsa going to go?

A very modest amount of trash...




No comments: