Sunday, May 15, 2022

Tully and Merrimack

 

This past week we finally escaped the grip of a swirling low pressure system stuck off the mid-Atlantic coast.  Day after day it sent cool maritime air westward on gusty winds.  On Tuesday I escaped the reach of those winds by traveling to Royalston in north central Massachusetts.  Once there I launched into the Tully River's east branch and headed upriver to the north...

Jacob's Hill is to the river's east and provided a barrier to gusts from that direction.  Water levels were ideal for paddling over beaver dams and allowed me to reach the hiker/mountain bike trail bridge... 

Prior to the 1947 Tully Dam flood control project, present-day Warwick Road (Rt. 68) used to cross the river here.

The view eastward along the abandoned road...

Just a short distance downstream is another stone bridge abutment which carried Davis Hill Road before the dam was built...

Passed these Pitcher plants preparing for another season...

The Tully is part of the Connecticut River watershed and its waters eventually reach Long Island Sound.

The little taste of summer found here came to an end as I drove eastward on Route 2 post-paddle.  Car windows that were rolled down were soon cranked up again once east of Fitchburg.


Later in the week on Friday came the real feel of summer.  After an early-morning launch into the Merrimack River in North Chelmsford I watched the last bits of fog retreat to the east...

The above view looks eastward towards the Atlantic Ocean where this river is headed.

Passed this turtle who'd already secured a primo spot for sun-basking...

Not sure if he's a painted turtle in camouflage or perhaps some other type of turtle.  Unlike most other painted turtles I encounter, this guy was all by himself.  Perhaps an old timer...like me.

A fairly humble riverside hut built with materials readily available...


The UMASS Lowell Boat House was looking sharp in the morning sunshine...


On the opposite side of the river from the boat house I could make out the roof of the Swaminarayan Hindu Temple...

...which serves as a point of reference to where the Middlesex Canal long ago entered the river through a series of locks (about 500 feet east of the temple).

Heading upriver I passed the south end of Wickasee Island and paddled up the canal on the island's east side.  A brand new Island Road Bridge spans the canal...

Right next to the shiny new bridge is this 92 year old historical marker...
...thankfully preserved during the bridge's rebuilding.  The marker was one of several hundred created in 1930 on the tercentenary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  I wonder how differently these historical markers would read if revised for the colony's quadricentennial coming up 8 years from now.  Perhaps the sign should also mention how Wannalancet's family came to lose possession of their island and how desperately they tried to get it back.  Were the English faithful friends to them?

If Wannalancet were around today I suspect he'd be OK with the new bridge.  However, I tend to believe he'd be less than pleased with this sign (1 of 3) repelling boaters looking for a spot to exit their boats and rest a bit on what was once his island...
...and there are no docks there anyway!
  

Trash for the week included this reminder of the estimated 4 to 8 million Hooksett Disks which were accidentally released from a wastewater treatment plant 35 miles or so upriver back in 2011...


The silver dollar-sized plastic wafer disk joined a wide assortment of trash mostly of a plastic nature...

On the other hand, trash from the Tully River was almost non-existent...

...with a can of Miller High Life "The Champagne of Beers" serving as a reminder of the area's hilly elevation.



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