Friday, November 26, 2021

Paddling Towards Thanksgiving

 

Started my Thanksgiving week with a Sunday paddle on the Charles River in Waltham where this plump bird held court on a floating dock.  Paddled that day with a group of canoeists on a section of the Charles called the Lakes District between Moody Street and Norumbega.  We landed at a spot once known as Fort Norumbega where some old floating platforms served as a reminder of a time when vessels ferried folks over from Norumbega Park for a tour of the site's stone tower.  What's left of the landing...


 All of us climbed the spiral stone steps to the tower's lookout and then back down...


Some paddlers were seeing the riverside's whimsical animal sculptures for the first time...



On Monday the Sudbury River was paddled in the Wayland, Lincoln, and Concord area.  A statue graced the Sherman's Bridge boat launch...


According to info found on Britannica I believe the statue is a representation of "Ganesha the god of beginnings, who is worshipped before any major enterprise".  Unfortunately the statue has been damaged.  While my enterprise was far from being a major one, I was gifted with this sighting of a pair of bald eagles (real ones)...

...thanks Ganesha.

Water levels have dropped a bit but still remain on the high side as can be seen at Lee's Bridge...


On Thanksgiving Eve the Assabet River was paddled in West Concord...
...where some of the season's first ice was encountered in a slough...

Hope we all have a meaningful Thanksgiving before heading into the winter season.


Trash from the week, Sunday...

Monday...

Wednesday...


Saturday, November 20, 2021

Some Great Ponds

Paddled two of Massachusetts'  "Great Ponds" this past week.  To be listed and enjoy the protections of being designated a "Great Pond" said pond or lake must contain (or have once contained) more than 10 acres in its natural state.  The two great ponds I paddled were Massapoag Pond in Groton/Dunstable/Tyngsborough and Walden Pond in Concord.  Both ponds have long been on my radar but for one reason or another I never got to them.  

Massapoag Pond is 122 acres in size and its Native American name is said to mean "great pond".  It's inlet is at the south end and the outlet is in the northeast corner.  This view looks southward from the pond's north end...


Camp Massapoag, a Greater Lowell Family YMCA facility, occupies 38 acres on the lake's west shore...


The most interesting spot for me was the lake's outlet at a place known as "The Gulf"...

...where, according to the area's early historical accounts there may have been a cataclysmic break in a natural embankment that resulted in the pond shrinking in size by several hundred acres.  According to Elias Nason, in his 1877 History of Dunstable Massapoag Pond was described as follows: "This fine sheet of water, which originally was full of islands and had an area of more than six hundred acres, is enclosed by hills and headlands, affording many admirable scenic views."   An even earlier account by historian Caleb Butler, in his 1848 History of the town of Groton, describes "The north end of the pond was bounded by a ridge of loose sand, rising but little above the surface of the water, and being about six rods only in width (approx. 100'); on the opposite side of which was a descent of about forty feet.  Here was an eligible spot for an overshot mill."  Butler relates that such a mill was built and pond water was conducted across the embankment.  Things apparently went well until a flood occurred sometime in the1700's.  That's when, according to legend, the embankment of loose sand was breached, washing away the mill, and creating a new outlet from the pond.  The sand, mill, and even the millstones went that-a-way (view of water exiting the pond and flowing northerly...  

...towards what today is Lower Massapoag Pond and subsequently Salmon Brook which flows to the Merrimack River.  It should ne noted that a later historian, Samuel Abbott Green, in his 1894 An Historical Sketch of Groton, Massachusetts dismissed all of this believing there was no factual evidence to support the theory.  Green did, however, acknowledge "while the formation of the banks at the mouth of the pond, or the 'gulf', so called, is peculiar, there are no signs that the water-line was ever any higher then it is at the present time (1877)."  In my visit to the outlet this past Monday I was impressed with how the terrain rises abruptly on both sides of the outlet.  The idea of such a sand embankment having once filled the gap and later having been breached seems reasonable to me.  One other thing that Caleb Butler mentioned was that in trying to locate the valuable millstones a noted clairvoyant of the day, Moll Pitcher of Lynn, was brought in.  Despite her psychic efforts the millstones were never found.  This 1950 topo map shows the area where the cataclysmic breakthrough may have occurred...


The launch for the Massapoag Pond is at its southern end in Groton.  The posted rules...

   
  
On Wednesday I paddled another 'walled-in' type of pond...Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau lived for two years.  After paddling the pond's circumference I headed into Thoreau's Cove...

A short walk brought me to the pile of stones...
...said to have been started by Thoreau's friend...


The granite posts near the stone pile marking the outline of Thoreau's cabin...

The approximate view he had from his window...
...and a sketch of the cabin...


It was while living in this cabin that Thoreau wrote his A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

The pond was fairly busy with folks walking the trails.  There were also several distance swimmers, and a couple of fishermen.  The 64 acre pond's water is crystal-clear.  Thoreau himself in 1846 is said to have located and measured the deepest part of the pond at 102 feet.  According to the Massachusetts Lake and Pond Guide's Fun Lake Facts "Walden Pond is the deepest pond in Massachusetts."
  
The boat launch has its own access road and a solar-powered kiosk near water's edge allows the $ 8 dollar fee to be paid by credit card...
Sign says it's open 7am to 4pm.
  

Wrapped up my paddling week on Thursday with an early morning paddle on the Assabet River in Maynard, MA.  Thanks to a recently cleaned out culvert I was able to get this look at Thanksgiving Pond..

Back on the river conditions felt more like early October...

...as I headed upriver eventually keeping Crow Island to my left...


A bald eagle watched over things...


A partially blocked culvert dissuaded my ascent of Fort Meadow Brook...


Monday's trash...


Wednesday's...


Thursday's...



Saturday, November 13, 2021

Rivers Minus Mosquitos

 

Headed up the Nashua River from the Oxbow NWR boat launch in Harvard, MA on Thursday and was pleased to find the swarms of pesky mosquitos that haunt this particular stretch of river were gone.  Thankfully, one of the recent killing frosts put the kibosh on their bloodsucking activities.  Not only were there no mosquitos, but the winds were light with temperatures in the low 50's F.  I headed upriver wondering how far I'd make it before fallen trees would stop my ascent.

About one mile up, the first trash trap was encountered...

...and by the time I pulled away my trash bags were nearly full.  The next trash gathering spot filled my bags, and with space at a premium I concentrated on "nip bottles"... ending up with 222 of them which is my new one day record...


 In 8 visits to this section of the Nashua River so far in 2021 838 "nip bottles" have been collected.

Continued my trip upriver navigating around blowdowns until, after 4 miles, I found myself looking at these greenhouses located on a farm off of Route 117 (Seven Bridge Road) in Lancaster...

...the first man-made structures seen alongside the river since the small stone chapel 3 miles downstream.

Believe it's the first time I made it that close to Route 117.  Guessing it's a combination of someone having cut some passageways, and water levels being just the right level.  I could have gone further but waning daylight dictated a return trip downriver to beat the earlier sunset time.  Looking downriver on one of the river's rare straight sections...


After landing and loading my gear I stopped halfway up Still River Depot Road to take in this twilight look at Mount Wachusett...


Earlier in the week, on Monday, I paddled the Assabet River in West Concord, MA between Westvale and Willow Island.  Paddling conditions were ideal...


Small tributaries were still gushing with water...


Monday's trash...


On Tuesday Mrs. Trashpaddler and I biked a fairly new rail trail for the first time...



...from Stony Brook (tributary of the Charles) at the Weston/Waltham line to the Sudbury River in Wayland.  Two of the original stations remain along this section of the route.  The one in Wayland is in great shape...

...whereas the one in Weston could use some TLC ...

The rail line was built in the late 1800's and once connected the cities of Boston and Northampton.



 
    

Sunday, November 7, 2021

High Water Beneath Bridges Old And New

 

This past week was one for enjoying the bounty of water from the previous week's rainstorms.  The resulting high water levels made access to brooks such as Nashoba and Fort Pond much easier than usual.  The above photo was taken on Wednesday at the confluence of the two brooks and just downstream of the new bridge being built to carry the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail up and over Nashoba Brook and Route 2.  The new bridge is being built at the spot where two railroads once crossed the brook side by side...the New Haven Railroad's Framingham to Lowell line and the Acton, Nashua, and Boston Railroad.  This 1950 map found on the UNH Dimond Library/Wayback Machine archive shows the busy location in Concord, MA...

(X shows my launch/takeout and the small arrows my brook turnaround points. The larger arrow shows the new bridge's location).

The rail trail bridge project is moving right along as this photo shows...

...and Route 2 in the distance seems dwarfed by the project.

Paddled both brooks...the Nashoba up to Teamworks, and then Fort Pond Brook up about 0.65 miles to where it continues on in a southwesterly direction...

...a 50' high ridge to it's east and a 20' high plateau to the west.  

Encountered my first spaceship near the plateau's base...

It was snagged in a low-hanging tree branch at the water's edge.  No sign of William Shatner.

Returning to the confluence I followed Nashoba Brook back to the beaver dam where my boat and I slid down it and back into Warner's Pond...


The day before, on Tuesday, I paddled the Sudbury River in Wayland up to the Heard Pond area where access to the pond from the river was also easier than usual...


  Further upriver these power lines...

...crossing the river had me thinking about the electricity Massachusetts hopes to bring down from Quebec Hydro.  Plans for bringing the lines through western Maine are meeting with opposition.

A beaver lodge near the Greenways...

 

Wrapped up the week with a Friday morning paddle on the Assabet River from Hudson up to just below Route 290 in Marlborough.  About a mile up from Chapin Street the first obstacle is a spot where there's four passages to choose from. Usually due to fallen trees only one is passable.  On previous occasions I wondered if there was once some kind of a structure or causeway here.  In looking at old maps of the area and noting the adjacent road is named "Four Bridges Road", I was able to find the bridge was last shown on this 1923 topo map (also found at the UNH Dimond Library/Wayback Machine archive)...


According to a June 2006 Hudson Reconnaissance Report/Freedom's Way Landscape Inventory the Four Bridges Ruins are "located at the end of Four Bridges Road just east of where Route 495 crosses the Assabet River.  Bridge was first bridge crossing of the Assabet River in Hudson. Some stone foundations of the bridge remain."

This photo shows the most northerly passage between the old stone foundations...


Just a short distance away a busy Route 495 carries many a trailer truck across the river...

...and a hornet's nest hangs above the water...

 

Further upriver a good flowing North Brook entered the river in Berlin...


Back on the Assabet I got this close to Route 290 where a fallen tree blocked my way...


The best fall foliage of the week, though somewhat muted, was on this small island in Warner's Pond...


Most vegetation has turned in for the winter except for these winterberry plants loaded with red berries seen in several spots along the Assabet...

Seeing the winterberry helped to alleviate the chilling effect of seeing this riverside frost...
...for I know what lies ahead.

Trash for the week:

Tuesday from the Sudbury River...


Wednesday from Nashoba and Fort Pond brooks which included a plastic bag containing 18 glass "nip" bottles...

Friday from the Assabet River where the least trash was encountered...