Concord and Connecticut Rivers

 

My paddling week started in Concord, MA at the mostly submerged Egg Rock inscription (photo above), the way it has often looked this wetter than usual summer.   My week included two visits to the Concord River and one to the Connecticut River.

   

Last Sunday on a cloudy morning I paddled from Egg Rock down to and around "The Holt"...

...turning about further downriver at October Farm.

On Tuesday afternoon I paddled the stretch between "The Holt" and the Bedford Boat Launch which included one of the river's longer straightaways starting at Davis Hill...

Wrapped up the week Friday on the Connecticut River launching from the Cow Bridge Boat Ramp in Hatfield, MA and paddling downriver towards the Holyoke Range of hills looming to the south...

Went down to where the river bends sharply to the west for a good mile or so before beginning a U-turn after Scott Island...

According to reporting in the Daily Hampshire Gazette newspaper the Connecticut River in this area experienced flooding in early July which affected several marinas damaging their floating docks.  The fertile meadows of Hatfield and Hadley are somewhat protected from such flooding by dikes running along the riverbanks.

Sunday's trash from the upper Concord...

Tuesday's, also from the Concord...

Yesterday's from the Connecticut...

The Connecticut also provided this comparison of our present-day trash represented by this deteriorating plastic jug...

...and trash from perhaps the 1950s represented by this sun-grabbing blue cobalt glass bottle...

...bearing the Hazel Atlas Co. mark as well as "Genuine Phillips" which once contained Milk of Magnesia.  Once the silt was rinsed from the bottle it was good as new.  The plastic jug, not so much.