Earth Week Paddles

 

This Earth Week saw some paddling on more local waters which included the Concord River's Old North Bridge (above photo) on a bright and sunny Easter morning.  It was the day before the Patriot''s Day holiday. The Minuteman Statue at the west end of the bridge stood ever at the ready...

From the bridge I paddled about 2.5 miles upriver to the Col. James Barrett farmhouse alongside the Assabet River.  On that April morning the British soldiers went to Barrett's farm and searched for weapons...

Clouds soon filled-in giving the Assabet a moody look...

Yesterday I got out on the Nashua River from Oxbow NWR in Harvard, MA and paddled upriver crossing paths with this swimming snake...

Trash was plentiful, as usual, for this stretch of river...

Amongst the flotsam was this beer can named for nearby Mt. Wachusett...

...and these two critters glad to be pulled out...

Perhaps it's the shallow water and many sharp bends in this area that allows so much trash to accumulate...

This was picked up from a 1.5 mile section upriver from the boat launch...

Besides the water, soda, and beer bottles were 154 "nips" and 14 plastic cigarette lighters.

By comparison the week's earlier paddle on the Concord and Assabet rivers produced a much smaller and more typical amount of trash...

Happy Earth Day!