Sunday, December 18, 2022

A Brief Review of 2022

This past year got underway in January for me with a good hot-stove reading of A Journey Into Mohawk and Oneida Country 1634 - 1635 The Journal of Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert.  It was my favorite read of the year and, like any really good first-hand account, it transported me to another place and time and cast the die for a springtime trip there.  The trip came 3 months later and brought me to the most distant waters from my home I'd experience in 2022...paddling the Mohawk River at my westernmost turnaround point downstream of the Erie Canal's Lock 13 near Yosts, NY...


The previous day I walked the grounds where the Mohawk palisaded village Caughnawaga stood in present-day Fonda, NY, and later visited another Mohawk village TE-NO-TO-GE...


After years of reading about the Mohawks and their always contentious relationship with the Algonkian peoples of my region, I finally got to experience a bit of the Mohawk world in their namesake river valley including Cohoes Falls and the Hudson/Mohawk rivers confluence.

Forts seemed to be a theme this year with visits to several French/English forts: Fort St. Frederic/Crown Point and Fort Carillon/Fort Ticonderoga both on Lake Champlain.  Other forts paddled to included the Connecticut River's Fort Dummer and Fort Pickering at the entrance to Salem Harbor in Massachusetts.

Closer to home I paddled some new-to-me sections of the Merrimack River between Hunt's Falls in Lowell, MA...

...and the Great Stone Dam in Lawrence.

Also closer to home was my first paddle of Lost Lake in Groton, MA...visited in the shoulder season when there was less boat traffic on the water.

Otherwise it was my usual haunts which for the most part are within a 20-mile radius of my home where water levels stayed on the low side for much of the year.

Trash was fairly typical with plastic bottles, balloons, and nip bottles being about the same as last year.  There did seem to be less Styrofoam cups perhaps thanks to Dunkin Donuts switch to a more environmentally friendly material for their coffee cups.

The trash hotspot of the year was once again the stretch of the Nashua River between Route 117 in Lancaster and Ice House Dam in Ayer, MA.  A total of 1,019 nip bottles were gathered up from this stretch of river compared with only 413 from all other waterways combined.  Here's a typical haul from this perennial hotspot...

 
Some of the more unusual flotsam I came across in 2022 were 5 USPS mail crates full of mail found in a half-mile stretch of the Concord River.  Each crate had been placed into a plastic trash bag before being tossed into the river...


Other oddities included a Disco Ball in the Merrimack River, and a Smoker's Outpost butt disposal receptacle in the Assabet River.

The drought of 2022 resulted in the recovery of some fairly old glass bottles from local rivers.  These five bottles are contenders for oldest find of the year: a Clicquot Club of Millis crown-top soda bottle (Concord R.),  a Ginter Co. Importers of Boston whiskey bottle (Concord R.), a Thatchers Mfg. Co. pint milk bottle (Sudbury R.), a C.I. Hood Sarsaparilla of Lowell bottle (Concord R.) and a J.M. McManus of Hopkinton blob-top soda/beer bottle (Sudbury R.).  All of them quite likely date to the early 1900's or possibly late 1800's.  I'm guessing the Sarsaparilla bottle is the oldest and likely dates to 1890...


The most unusual wildlife encounter came when I dipped my arms into the salty waters between Danvers and Salem harbors...and felt little objects bouncing off my skin.  These transparent little organisms seen on my spray deck below turned out to be Salps...
...a creature I'd neither seen nor heard of to this point in my life.  According to Wikipedia they're a barrel-shaped, "plantic tunicates" and their life cycle is complex.

Another first-ever wildlife encounter was the Star-nosed Mole seen swimming close to shore at Concord River's Fordway Bar.  Other wildlife encounters were a northern water snake on the Assabet and a lone river otter on the Sudbury.  Also, speaking of wildlife, it was great to witness another pair of eaglets successfully fledge from the Assabet River's eagle nest.

According to Google analytics the most viewed Trashpaddler post in 2022 was The Sunken Fort Below Wantastiquet.   

Happy Holidays to all fellow trash paddlers and other waterway travelers and best wishes for a great 2023! 


Saturday, December 10, 2022

Last Paddle for Awhile

 

The Nashua River had a lot of pines leaning in this past Monday on what I suspect will be my last paddle of 2022.  My boat's power plant needs some work and will be mothballed for the rest of this year.

Knowing this I decided to launch at Petapawag in Groton, MA and head up the Nashua.  The day was pleasant for December with not too much wind and temperatures in the mid to upper forties.

Reached the confluence of the Nashua and Squannacook with enough time to push on a little further...


Then the race was on to get back to Petapawag before sunset...and it was close...

...seeing the Rt. 111/119 bridge just after taking the above photo...
...and closing out my paddling year.

My last trash haul of 2022...

...which included 42 nip bottles.



Sunday, December 4, 2022

Dwindling Hours of Daylight

 

Dwindling hours of daylight were the theme this past week. On Tuesday, I'd waited until noon for temperatures to warmup before getting out on the Sudbury River in Wayland, MA.  Only a few hours later at around 3pm it seemed to me the sun began rapidly falling towards the horizon and some giddy-up paddling was required to reach the takeout before dark.    

A beaver family just beyond the Greenways has built a long-running dam helping to ensure their lodge stays surrounded by water...


Somebody's vintage kitchen chair ended up being riverside...


One unusual thing I came upon between the Pelham Island Bridge and the Greenways was a cluster of 17 bright red and yellow spent shotgun shells.  Many of them were floating in the river.  I believe most responsible hunters would've picked up their spent shells.


On Friday I got out on the Nashua River heading downriver from the Oxbow NWR at Still River in Harvard, MA...

...and later encountered the same situation with the sun seemingly racing for the door.

With the leaves now gone from the shrubbery, deer having eyes upon me are revealed...


One of the Nashua's more serene spots on Friday afternoon...
...was the above slough with a thin layer of ice away from the river's flow.


The week's trash:

Tuesday's which included 14 nip bottles and an empty bottle of Guarana Antarctica Soda...


Friday's trash included 81 nip bottles and a dozen plastic cigarette lighters...


Driving away from the Nashua River valley I took a last look at Wachusett from Prospect Hill...

...and found myself hoping the winter solstice gets here asap so we can start adding minutes rather than subtracting them.


Monday, November 28, 2022

Assabet's Dales and Sudbury's Ghosts

 

My paddling week started on Tuesday by paddling the Assabet River up to Gleasondale...

...where the Route 62 bridge repair project continues.

On Friday another jaunt on the Assabet brought me upriver to a point below the Damondale Mill...
...at Westvale-Harrington Park.

The Assabet on Tuesday offered an updated view of the eagle nest that's gradually being rebuilt...

...as well as some recently completed human nests which now stand where formerly was only woods...

A duck-blind that looked to be well built proved no match for last week's 40-mph wind gusts...

Wrapped up the week yesterday with an upriver paddle on the Sudbury River to Fairhaven Bay.  Approaching the Elm Street bridge there appeared to be some repair work being done...

The Sudbury offered an encounter with this solitary American coot...
...as well as a game of peek-a-boo with a solitary river otter.  The otter was hanging around a beaver's lodge and seemed curious as to my presence.  Apparently feeling secure behind the many buttonbush plants the otter elevated itself numerous times from many different spots.  The many branches frustrated my attempts to get a photo.  This was the best I could do...
...where only his right eye, a bit of his nose/whiskers, and his torso are visible behind the branch in the foreground.  With all the signs warning of there being mercury in the fish I have to wonder how long a fish-eating mammal such as an otter can survive in these waters.

The Sudbury also boasts a well-built eagle nest...
Wonder if the eagles are also suffering the effects of the mercury.

The ghosts of the Sudbury were these well-camouflaged deer...

Trash for the week:
Tuesday's...
...which included 18 nip bottles.


Friday's...
...which included 5 nips and a non-deployed rescue throw-rope bag found below the Damonmill.  Will hold onto the bag for a while in the event someone recognizes it.

Sunday's...
....most of which was found at a shore-fishing hot spot.
 





Monday, November 21, 2022

Shelter from the Wind

 


Only got out once this past week as the weather on most days featured a cold blustery breeze...quite a change from our unseasonably warm days the previous week.  On Friday afternoon I found a haven from the breeze on the Nashua River where the river is nestled in a valley between two north-south running ridge lines (photo above).  The boat launch is at the Oxbow NWR located at the end of Still River Depot Road in Harvard, MA.

The Nashua was still at a fairly low level but nonetheless had a strong flow from recent rain events.


The bridge carrying the tracks of the CSXT rail line between Worcester and Ayer stood at the ready for the next freight train...


After paddling an up and back route I exited the river, packed up, and proceeded to leave the boat launch.  Approaching the railroad crossing, within sight of the boat launch, I saw the crossing lights flashing and shortly thereafter a westbound freight (M427) rumbled into view...

Three CSX locomotives (866, 551, and 1226) pulled the train past the spot where Still River Depot once stood and headed for the bridge spanning the Nashua River.  Seeing the train had me wondering what the Still River Depot had looked like back in the day.  Yesterday, while listening to 40-mph gusts outside, I looked through my old Boston and Maine Railroad Historical Society bulletins in hopes of finding a photo of the depot.  Just when I was ready to give up I came across the Summer 1979 edition which included an article entitled Worcester, Nashua, and Portland Station List and this photo showing "The station at Still River as it looked in the 1930's...a work extra is passing, and its crew is catching the breeze on the rear platform of the buggy."...

According to the Town of Harvard website History of Harvard, A summary of Harvard 1950 - 2000 written by Dr. Jeffrey Harris: "In the early 20's, Still River Depot shipped more milk to market than any other Massachusetts town.  In 1942, there were reported fifty-five commercial orchards shipping more apples than any other town in the state, but only three commercial orchards were active fifteen years later."  The depot was probably seeing little use, other than freight, by the time a passenger train named the East Wind began operating during the summer months between Washington, D.C. and Bangor Maine.  According to another Boston and Maine Bulletin article, Summer 1978 written by H. Arnold Wilder the fast-running East Wind  most likely rattled the windows on the depot as it roared by during the early 1940's.  Wilder's article includes a schedule showing the train covering the 44 miles between Worcester and Lowell in 58 minutes.
Note: An earlier photo (pre-1907) of the Still River Depot can be found on the nashuacitystation.org website.

Trash recovered from just a 1.6 mile stretch of the river included 70 nip bottles...



Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Merrimack's Mirrors

 

The Merrimack River had an enticing appearance when I paddled it last Friday morning.  It was a warm morning that felt more like September than November.  Clouds were gaining ground with rain predicted for later in the day.

A short detour was taken into Stony Brook where paddling beneath an old mill had me seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel...

...and after emerging from it I came upon another brookside mill...

Back on the Merrimack and along the shore of Wickasee Island I came upon what looks to have been one half of a Disco Ball decorated with hundreds of tiny plastic mirrors...


Later I watched a westbound CSX freight train do some work at North Chelmsford...
...near the junction with the Stony Brook Branch.


My paddling week had gotten underway on the Concord River with a Tuesday morning paddle between Two Brothers Rocks and Great Meadows. Launched from the Bedford Boat Ramp near the Route 225 bridge...

Though it didn't feel like November it was beginning to look like it...
...and a gusty northwest wind was blowing upriver.  About 2 miles upriver from the boat launch I  encountered a young man fishing from a two-man canoe.  He was able to fish while standing up in his canoe despite the choppy waters.  He told me the gusty winds were preventing him from gaining any headway back downriver to where his truck was parked, and that he'd subsequently decided to just go with the conditions and later "Uber" himself back.  Guess it shows how differently the smartphone generation deals with such a situation.  Without much concern he went about his fishing.    

Wrapped up the week on Sunday with a one-way paddle down the Assabet River starting from the Acton Canoe Launch.  The day turned out to be a more typical November day with occasional showers and much cooler temperatures.  The gloomy conditions most likely marked the end of our spell of November warmth...which was much enjoyed by this paddler.   Passed the Damondale Mill where the old broken dam formerly stood...

Speaking of dams it was good to read a recent article in the Boston Globe by Travis Andersen and Daniel Kool on the Natick Select Board's vote to remove the dam on the Charles River in South Natick.  The dam which was built in 1934 and no longer serves a purpose is in need of repairs costing in the neighborhood of 2 million dollars.  Removal of the dam, on the other hand, is estimated to be 1.5 million dollars.  A photo of the dam as I saw it in 2020...
The Globe article quoted the Select Board Chair Paul R. Joseph as follows:  "I don't take lightly the fact that the climate is changing,...and the resilience of a river that's not dammed is, by far, stronger than a river that is impeded by man-made structures. Again, to paraphrase a different environmentalist, 'let the water go where it knows to go.'  And I think, in some ways, that's what we're facing right now."

The best example of the beneficial effects of a dam removal project that I've seen is the removal of the Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow, ME.  This dam was located at the confluence of the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers and had long blocked anadromous fish from ascending the Sebasticook River.  Following its removal in 2008 (combined with the earlier removal of the Edwards Dam)  the Sebasticook River began seeing alewife, shad, striped bass, and salmon again.  According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine website, in 2014 the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife counted 58 bald eagles in a five mile stretch of the Sebasticook River.   A photo of where the dam formerly spanned the Sebasticook (June 2018)...

  

Trash for the week:

Tuesday's from the Concord...


Friday's from the Merrimack...


Sunday's from the Assabet...


Came across this painted turtle on the Concord River that was catching some rays and didn't seem concerned in the least about the close proximity of my boat...