Visited a couple of old favorites this past week. On Monday I launched at the Pauchaug Brook Wildlife Management Area Boat Launch in Northfield, MA and headed upstream to the hydro-electric station at Vernon, VT (above photo). Though it's one of my favorite stretches of the Connecticut River it'd been four years since I'd last paddled it. A map showing the stretch of river...
It makes an interesting 'up and back down' paddle with numerous points of interest: several old bridge piers that long ago carried Boston and Maine trains across the river, the point near Newton Brook where MA, NH, VT meet, tiny Rock Island, medium-sized Pomeroy Island, the confluence with the Ashuelot River, large-sized Stebbins Island, Coopers Point, Elmers Island just below the falls, and finally the Vernon, VT hydro station. The river gets shallower and the current stronger as you approach Stebbins Island and Cooper's Point which require good course selection. Another reason I like this section is that it's relatively close to home...only about an hour's drive.
Once out on the river I noticed several signs of just how high the water was earlier in the season. Most were pieces of plastic hanging from defoliated branches, however this high and dry sleeping bag provided the best example...
Pomeroy Island's southern end...
According to
The History of the town of Northfield by J.H. Temple and George Sheldon the island is named for Nathaniel Pomeroy who was killed here in a skirmish with Native Americans in 1698.
Up closer to the dam was this immature eagle at Elmer's Island...
A peek into the Ashuelot River provided this view of an old railroad bridge which now carries the Fort Hill and Ashuelot recreational rail trails...
In the Connecticut just below its confluence with the Ashuelot I encountered a river otter that periscoped itself above water three times to check me out. Unfortunately I only got one photo of his head barely above the surface...
The view through the old bridge piers southward towards Northfield on the return trip...
After landing at the Pauchaug Boat Launch I was unloading my boat when a fellow approached asking if I'd seen the black bear that walked across the parking lot. When I replied I hadn't seen the bear, he told me the bear stopped and looked at me for awhile before heading into an adjacent meadow. Sure wish I had looked up...might have got a great photo of the bear.
On Wednesday, closer to home, I revisited the Little Farms Road launch site in Framingham, MA. It had been two years since my last visit. The Sudbury River there was found to be at springtime levels which resulted in easy access to the mile-long former route of the river, the cut-off oxbow. The upstream entrance (usually not navigable) was full and invited this paddler in...
Two paddlers from the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord Wild and Scenic organization were on the river and they also followed the river's old route around the oxbow.
Oxbow paddlers are rewarded with a sense of being well off the beaten path...
Exiting the oxbow loop I headed upstream on the Sudbury to Saxonville, a village in Framingham...
Rounding Otter Neck I came upon the gauge at Saxonville...
A few of the more interesting bridges in this stretch:
The Old Danforth Street bridge (pedestrian only now)...
The "Hot Dog" MWRA aqueduct carrying water to greater Boston...
Stone's Bridge built in the 1830s with hand-laid stones...
Another hand-laid stone bridge abutment in Cochituate Brook...
...where I almost reached School Street.
Joe Pye weed and Cardinal flowers blossomed together along the Sudbury...
Monday's trash from the Connecticut included a plastic one-gallon jug of someone's used motor oil....
It was floating low in the water. Usually I find such containers are filled with river water. However this container was filled to the brim with 128-ounces of used motor oil. Many thanks to the folks at Jiffy-Lube who will properly dispose of the oil.
Wednesday's trash from the Sudbury included 14 miniature alcohol bottles...
