2023 Out On a High Note

Yesterday provided the perfect day for closing out my 2023 paddling season.  Things started out real foggy on the Nashua River in Harvard, MA...

...but eventually blossomed into a beautiful sunny day with only a light southwest breeze and temperatures in the low 50's F...

It'd be hard to top such conditions this late in December, so I won't even try.

The scent of fresh creosote (which I'm partial to) was wafting from the CSX railroad bridge...

A short hike to the bridge found the source to be newly-installed wood timber decking ...

Thus this old bridge heads into 2024 sporting new crossties and new rails.

On Christmas Eve my second-to-last paddle was on the Assabet River in West Concord, MA which allowed for one last foray up Nashoba Brook to one of the two dams at Warner's Pond...

...where the vertical drop was minimal (the gauge at the Commonwealth Ave bridge showed 4.7').

My final wildlife encounter of 2023 was with this red-tailed hawk along the Assabet near Westvale...

My last two trash hauls of 2023:

Christmas Eve from the Assabet River included 40 miniatures and some Christmas colors...

Yesterday's final trash from the Nashua River at Oxbow (south) included 135 miniatures...

It was appropriate to close out 2023 with a good haul of miniatures as the year's consistently high water levels kept miniatures on the move.   Here's a look at the small bottles (aka "nips")...

So, since my boat and paddle will be resting until 2024 gets underway, it's a good time to look astern at my 2023 paddling year.

It wasn't long into 2023, February 12th to be exact, that I encountered my first and only floating, unopened fortune cookie on the Assabet River in Stow, MA...

...and, of course, I had to open it to see if I'd stumbled upon good fortune...

...deep stuff and I couldn't agree more.  I guess it helps explain why 2023 had me subsequently having to get used to using a smart phone instead of my trusty Kindle to read the daily newspaper (Kindle was better).  On a more positive note, Mrs.Trashpaddler and I replaced our conventional bicycles with new electric-assist bikes (which we love riding and kind of takes me back to my long-ago motorcycle riding days).

Paddling-wise, things were pretty much the same with my boats, gear, and local waterways.  Took several multi-day trips to places further afield: 

In April I went west and spent 4 days with summerlike warmth paddling the tidal reach of the Hudson River below Albany, NY.  The Mahican people once occupied Schodack and Papscanee islands in this stretch of the Hudson. Nowadays it's not unusual to encounter ocean-going vessels here, some 140 miles up from the ocean where they dwarf most other watercraft...

The Hudson also provided these hot-tub duckies...

g

In May a 2-day trip brought me to the Poultney River on the Vermont/New York border...

...and provided this encounter with a mink enjoying some fish take-out...

In June I spent 5 days paddling and camping in the Bangor/Old Town/Orrington area of Maine.  Paddled alongside Indian Island, ancestral home of the Penobscot people...

The area is also remembered for the legendary log drivers personified by the pictured Paul Bunyan...

Explored the tidal reach of Maine's Penobscot River...

...where eagles were aplenty...

Speaking of wildlife, my favorite encounters in 2023 were the following: 

This 6-point buck along the Assabet River...

This green heron also along the Assabet River...

However, my most memorable wildlife encounter took place in the Assabet River where I came upon a coyote entering the river in pursuit of Canada geese goslings...

...and working his way upriver of the geese...

His ultimate lunge for the goslings was repulsed by one of the adult geese while the other adult herded the goslings away...leaving him dumbfounded...

2023's most egregious piece of litter was a 1-gallon plastic jug full to the brim with someone's used motor oil.  It was found floating in the Connecticut River...

The number of miniature alcohol bottles (aka "nips") I come across continues to increase each year.

Total miniatures for 2023 = 3,553 (2,604) from the Nashua R.).  This compares with 1,453 in 2022.

  The biggest single-day gathering of miniatures occurred on the Nashua River near Bolton Flats...

The plastic bag contains 275 miniatures recovered from one large trash trap on the Nashua River in Bolton...

The aforementioned trash trap...

...which will quite likely provide job security for trash paddlers in 2024.

With the year's generous water levels there were lots of Ducky Race escapees on the loose.

This group came from the Assabet River...

...and these more laid-back ducks came from the Nashua River...

The year's consistently high water levels resulted in fewer glass bottles.  Here's the 3 keepers I came across...

The cobalt blue Genuine Phillips bottle came from the Connecticut River in Hatfield, MA; the "It's Hoods" 1-pint bottle came from the Merrimack River in Lowell, MA; and the quart-sized milk bottle marked "Old Acre Farm" came from the Concord River in Concord, MA.

But wait...there's one more.  Yesterday when I least expected to find a glass bottle I saw an old one peeking out from the riverbank...

The bottle was in like-new condition but has no embossing or marks to help identify it.  It held one quart and would've been sealed with a cork.  

One final item noticed yesterday was this old railing attesting to the location of the long-gone Still River Railroad Station...

It's the only piece of the station that I've been able to find and can be seen in an old postcard showing the area to the station's right side.

Happy 2024 to all and safe waters to fellow paddlers!

Paddling As the Crow Flies

 

Oz had the idea for a Winter Solstice Paddle and both Roger and I signed on.  Locations mentioned were the Nashua River or possibly the Assabet River.  However that was before eastern Massachusetts received an additional 4" of rain earlier in the week.  Oz ultimately decided currents in the Nashua and Assabet would've been just too strong to paddle against, whereas the Sudbury River has the ability to spread out the current and become much like a lake.  Thus we assembled Thursday at Sherman's Bridge (photo above) in Wayland, MA and launched under bright sunny skies with a northwest breeze.  With so much water it was hard to see where the river's actual channel ran and it quickly became apparent that we could paddle as the crow flies.  We easily entered Pantry Brook floating over the submerged barrier which usually prevents access and paddled up Cold Brook to almost Concord Road before turning about...

From there, another crow's flight brought us to the earthen dam at Farrar Pond where we were able to paddle right up to the dam's top and slide our boats across.  The view down the length of the usually in-accessible (from the river) pond...

Oz heading down the pond...

Roger approaching pond's end...

Returning to the river we joined the main channel before passing under Lee's Bridge at Rt. 117...

At Fairhaven Bay the stone boathouse held its ground against the rising waters...

 

In the bay's northwest corner we entered Well Meadow and found nearly all the vegetation and a large beaver lodge completely submerged...

...allowing us to get fairly close to the Andromeda Ponds and the path to Walden Pond.

A map (1894) from the Wayback Machine shows our route through bits of Wayland, Sudbury, Lincoln, and Concord...

Back at Sherman's Bridge, Town of Wayland DPW personnel were monitoring the river's level in relation to the bridge and noted the level was still rising. 

Upon landing we agreed that we couldn't have had a better day or location for a Winter Solstice Paddle.

Trash we gathered up along the way...

...which included an empty beer can labeled Sip of Sunshine...appropriate for the shortest day of the year.

The day before the solstice I took this short video of the Assabet River rushing through downtown Maynard from the safety of the Assabet River Rail Trail bridge...

On Tuesday, in the storm's immediate aftermath, I paddled the impoundment above the Powdermill Dam...

...which was relatively calm compared to its outlet at the dam...

The USGS gauge upstream in Maynard was at 5.8'.

The dock and bench off the Blue/Green Trail were submerged...

At the downstream end of the impoundment there were numerous miniature bottles afloat...

The eastern end of the Powdermill impoundment resulted in this trash haul...

...which included 167 miniature alcohol bottles (aka "nips").   Winter's here!

December's Waning Days

 

The number of days and hours of daylight are fast dwindling as we enter the last half of December.  Water levels in the rivers remain healthy as could be seen at the Egg Rock inscription in Concord, MA on Tuesday.  A visit to the Powdermill Dam in Acton (about 6 miles upriver) on Monday showed a generous flow following Sunday night's deluge...

The high water allowed paddling to spots amidst the trees, and far from the river's main channel such as this split rock...

Went up as far as Barrett's Farm before turning around and riding the swift current back.

Arrived back at the Lowell Road boat launch to find this pileated woodpecker oblivious to anything other than the nest hole it was creating...

 

On a sunny and relatively warm Friday I paddled the Nashua River starting from the Oxbow N.W.R. in Harvard, MA.  Went upriver about 3 miles to the bank-to-bank blockage before turning about and riding the Nashua's flow back down...

Trash saw an uptick due to the higher water levels, and more than a few plastic containers were seen drifting downriver "going with the flow".  The trash from the lower Assabet River...

Friday's trash from the Nashua River...

...included another 109 miniatures (aka "nip" bottles).