Bit of a Backslide

Spring did a bit of a backslide this past week with some blustery winter-like conditions.  I was able to get in a couple of weekday paddles: Wednesday on the Merrimack River in North Chelmsford, MA and Friday on the Assabet River in West Concord, MA.

Skies over the Merrimack reflect the season's uncertainty... 

Kept in the lee of the wind by hugging the river's west side past Stony Brook where a string of freight cars were being picked up by a pair of CSX locomotives...

After the train departed to the west I headed upriver a little past the north tip of Wickasee Island.  My return trip was via the sheltered canal on the island's east side...

On Friday, after Thursday's cold and wintry conditions, I got out on the Assabet River in West Concord, MA...

Traveling up to Damonmill's outlet canal...

Then down past a commuter train in symmetry with the bridge...

A side trip up Nashoba Brook was stopped by this fallen tree at the Commonwealth Street Bridge...

There was plenty of plastic trash lining the Merrimack's banks...

A bit less on the Assabet...

One of the friendlier pieces of plastic found on the Merrimack...

The Assabet offered this profound observation by the Colonel Sanders...

The week started spring-like but ended with my winter hat and pogies being required.

Lighter All Around

Spent this past week getting re-acquainted with my composite kayak which is 15 pounds lighter than my rotomolded kayak. Made the switch a little earlier than usual as these days I feel each and every pound.  All the better to enjoy our increasing hours of daylight.

Wednesday on the Concord River in Bedford, MA under bright blue skies...

...and Thursday on the Assabet River in Stow, MA under equally cloudless skies...

Wrapped up the week with a Saint Patrick's Day paddle in Concord, MA under changeable skies and a kicked-up breeze in the vicinity of Egg Rock...

Water levels on the local rivers were back up and almost allowed me to paddle into Brewster's Canoe House alongside the Concord River...

On Sunday the Egg Rock inscription was completely submerged.  However, a short distance away on the Assabet another rock showed two lines from George Bradford Bartlett's poem Floating Hearts...

 

Other notable sightings during the week were this eagle on the Assabet...

Common mergansers on the Assabet...

...and a Styrofoam F-35 aircraft from the lower Sudbury...

Trash from the Concord on Wednesday included 22 "nip bottles"...

Trash from the Assabet on Thursday included 15 "nip bottles" and a plastic dolphin...

Trash from St. Patrick's Day on bits of the Assabet and Sudbury rivers included 43 "nip bottles" and a wee bit of green...

My favorite Irish saying...May the road rise to meet you.

Last Standard Time Paddle

 

Got out only once this past week...a mid-day paddle on the Nashua River from Petapawag in Groton, MA. 

Heading downriver I passed by an eagle nest at an ideal location.  Status of nest unknown.

Went down to where the river opens up in the approach to the dam at East Pepperell...

Trash, most of which was found snagged at the Route 111/119 bridge included another 45 "nip" bottles.

As I write this we've entered Daylight Saving Time...meaning we made it through another winter...perhaps one of the easiest winters I can recall!  While sitting by my rarely needed stove these past months I read of Samuel Champlain, his mentor Sieur de Monts, and company deciding in 1604 to spend their first North American winter upon a small island in a tidal river near the Bay of Fundy.  Their decision ultimately proved disastrous when a long, snowy, and brutally cold winter befell them.  There were 79 men at the beginning of winter and only 44 survived to see the spring.  Most of the deaths were due to scurvy which wasn't fully understood at that time.  In reading The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Three Volumes translated by Charles P. Otis, edited by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, I found Champlain's account regarding the fateful choice of their first settlement location: "Vessels could pass up the river only at the mercy of the cannon on this island, and we deemed the location the most advantageous, not only on account of its situation and good soil, but also on account of the intercourse which we proposed with the savages of these coasts and of the interior, as we should be in the midst of them."  However, due to ice flows in the river the island became more of a prison than a safe place to winter-over.  The following June Champlain wrote "On the 17th of the month, Sieur de Monts decided to go in quest of a place better adapted for an abode, and with a better temperature than our own."  Thus the island settlement was a one and done and I'm left to wonder who was  the "we" who deemed the location "most advantageous"?    Sieur de Monts?, Champlain?, or both?  My curiosity is stoked to see this island. 

Changes Afloat and Afoot

 

This past week showcased the many changes beginning to take place along our local rivers.  On Tuesday a Sudbury River paddle from Egg Rock to Fairhaven Bay was undertaken under bright sunny skies with temperatures near 60 degrees F.  Real spring-like warmth was felt for a change.

The inscription at Egg Rock (opening photo) stood clean and dry for the first time in quite awhile as water levels have returned to something approaching normal.  Evidence of the previously higher levels included this macabre reminder of winter's unforgiving nature...

Hard to tell what kind of critter it is.

The South Bridge Boat House was looking good...

Reached Fairhaven Bay and found it almost entirely ice-free...

...except for the slough leading into the Lincoln Canoe Launch which was still iced over...

Across the river was this reminder that sugar maple sap is beginning to flow...

A colorful assortment of boats await their owners...

Yesterday on the Nashua River in Harvard, MA I happily welcomed the month of March and the arrival of meteorological spring...

...though temperatures felt more like late February than March.

Post paddle and while strapping down my boat a train horn was heard to the south.  It preceded the arrival of CSX Train 426 enroute to Portland, ME seen crossing the Nashua River...

 The train would pull to a stop at the Still River Depot Road crossing...

..for a change of crew.

Trash from the Sudbury River was light on Tuesday...

...but changed to a bit heavier plastic content from the Nashua River on Friday...

...with 45 miniature bottles (aka "nips") front and center.