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!