Trashpaddler: Before the Ice Sets In

This past week provided a preview of what's coming with temperatures enough below freezing to start solidifying water in some of the shallower sloughs. This prompted me to paddle a few Massachusetts waterways prone to early ice formation while I still can: Farm Pond in Framingham, Lake Wampanoag in Ashburnham, and an impounded section of the Assabet River. Sort of the paddling version of "make hay while the sun shines".

Farm Pond is a 140-acre "Great Pond" and has long been on my radar yet somehow I never seemed to get there...until Wednesday morning when I launched into the pond from Lakeview Ave at its north end...

Paddled alongside the pond's east shore where the CSX Railroad's North Framingham Yard had strings of freight cars being shuffled from its south end...

At the north end of the yard, near the boat launch, a pair of CSX locomotives idled away the morning. They would later, around midday, leave the yard with a northbound train on the line to Leominster.

Eventually I reached the pond's south end where an aqueduct from Sudbury River Reservoir No. 1 divides the pond...

...and leads to this abandoned gatehouse...

The aqueduct once supplied drinking water to Boston.

Looking northward from here...

Another smaller structure is on the pond's west side...

In the pond's northwest corner is the outlet into Eames Brook...

The brook runs about half a mile to the Sudbury River passing along the way the site of a King Philip's War raid which occurred on February 1, 1676 (only 9 days before the Lancaster Raid)..

Another marker commemorating the same event stands at the intersection of Mt Wayte Ave and Dudley Rd...

Near the historical stone marker (where the Eames house stood) is this street sign...

...serving as a reminder that this area was once the second largest Chautauqua community in the US.

The name Chautauqua references a late 1880s education and social movement that originated on a lake in New York and spread across the country. Framingham History.org notes that "The Chautauqua movement embodied the middle class longing for Culture with a capital 'C' in the years after the Civil War". At its peak as many as 30 trains of patrons arrived per day, and there were more than 200 cottages.

The following day, Thursday, provided an opportunity for me to explore a Massachusetts body of water that hadn't been on my radar and only recently came to my attention...Lake Wampanoag in Gardner and Ashburnham, MA. The 224-acre lake and Camp Collier which is alongside it were in the news related to an intensive police manhunt of the area. The search was suspended after several days, and another early November cold morning provided an opportunity for me to paddle it before it ices over. On the Massachusetts Paddler website I found the necessary info regarding launch sites, parking, fees etc. A $5 dollar donation is requested at the boat ramp...

Lake Wampanoag has a real sense of remoteness due to most of the land surrounding it being protected from development: There's the 585-acre Camp Collier which was founded in 1931 as the David R. Collier Boy Scout Reservation; the 272-acre Ashburnham Wildlife Management Area; and the 377-acre Mass Audubon Lake Wampanoag Sanctuary.

Arrived at Camp Collier where this map greets campers...

The camp appeared to be closed for the season.

Heading out onto the scenic lake...

The outlet to the Whitman River on the lake's SE side...

Water exiting over the spillway...

...and beginning its journey down the 8.4-mile long Whitman River and eventually the North Nashua River...

According to the History of Ashburnham by Ezra S. Stearns (1887) "The fourth drainage of the Merrimack slope embraces the southwest and remaining area of the town. Here are several artificial ponds but no natural body of water. The drainage is collected in the Nashua reservoir (today's Lake Wampanoag) and flowing through the village of South Ashburnham and thence through Westminster in a course nearly parallel with Phillips' brook to the line of Fitchburg."

This 1887 USGS topo map shows the pond/lake when it was shown as Nashua Reservoir...

Then in 1940 it was shown on the map as Lake Wampanoag leaving me to wonder if the new name was related to Camp Collier's Native American theme...

Note the stream heading out of the lake's northeastern end and running alongside the Cheshire Railroad.

Further along I found the first real iced-over slough I've encountered this season...

At the pond's northeast corner I encountered the abandoned roadbed of the Cheshire Railroad which ran from South Ashburnham, MA to North Walpole, NH...

Looking southeast towards South Ashburnham Station...

Had my lunch sitting in the middle of the roadbed where, if I'd done so in 1945, I might have had to jump out of the way of this Boston and Maine Railroad diesel-powered streamliner known as the Cheshire...

Photo is from the Boston and Maine Historical Society's Bulletin June 1985 which states the Cheshire operated between White River Junction, VT and Boston, MA from 1944 until 1951.

At the northern most point on the lake I noticed a sizeable marsh extending northward from the lake...

However, it appeared an earthen dike had been constructed to keep the lake and marsh separate from each other. In looking at the earlier maps it looks to me that this marsh drains northward and is part of the Millers River watershed. The stream joins with the outlet from today's Cheshire Pond (formerly Mud Pond). Was the dike built to redirect water rising here towards the Nashua River watershed instead? That might indicate the artificial Lake Wampanoag was created right on the watershed divide and without the dike there might have been watershed mingling.

This 1944 USGS topo map shows a black squiggly line exactly where the earthen dike is located...

...just to the left of the word Maine.

Looking back from the dike's far end to its other end (and my boat)...

A small cabin with some interesting designs on its windows and shutters...

The last structure I passed before reaching the take-out was this A-framed chapel which serves Camp Collier...

Lake Wampanoag is a special place and stands in stark contrast to Lake Momomonac which has cottages along most of its shoreline. Other than structures related to Camp Collier there only a handful of shoreside buildings and I didn't encounter a soul in my time on Lake Wampanoag.

Closed out the week yesterday morning with a paddle of the Assabet River from Ice House Landing in Maynard, MA where a self-serve kayak rental had half of its inventory rented and out on the river...