Yesterday provided the perfect day for closing out my 2023 paddling season. Things started out real foggy on the Nashua River in Harvard, MA...
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...
Thus this old bridge heads into 2024 sporting new crossties and new rails.
...where the vertical drop was minimal (the gauge at the Commonwealth Ave bridge showed 4.7').
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")...
A short hike to the bridge found the source to be newly-installed wood timber decking ...
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...
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...
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.
...and, of course, I had to open it to see if I'd stumbled upon good fortune...
The aforementioned trash trap...
...which will quite likely provide job security for trash paddlers in 2024.
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.
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...
...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:
g
...and provided this encounter with a mink enjoying some fish take-out...
Explored the tidal reach of Maine's Penobscot 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...
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...
gIn May a 2-day trip brought me to the Poultney River on the Vermont/New York border...
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...
...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...
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...
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...
Happy 2024 to all and safe waters to fellow paddlers!
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