Open Portal

 

This past week found me back on my home waters after visiting a little piece of the St. Croix River in Maine and a bit of Passamaquoddy Bay in New Brunswick.  Though my local rivers such as the Assabet and Concord (photo above) rivers are considerably smaller by comparison, they rarely disappoint.

Each time I ascend the Assabet River and reach its confluence with Fort Meadow Brook I check the box culvert to see if passing through into the brook is possible.  For the past year the answer has been "not today".  On this past Monday, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find just enough headroom and a manageable amount of current inviting me in...

It's been well over a year since I last passed through it.  In fact my last visit to the brook was via a portage.  The brook is navigable for about a quarter mile...

 ...up to the new bridge which recently replaced the old Mass Central Railroad wooden trestle...

The new bridge will carry electrical transmission lines and at some point in the future pedestrians and bicyclists.   The only remaining traces of the old railroad trestle I could see were these cut-off wooden piers...

The week's other surprise came when I saw this year's pair of Assabet River eaglets in their riverside nest...

One of them is already spreading its wings...

A nest of a different type was seen suspended beneath the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail bridge in West Concord...

Looks like a hammock or maybe the bridge is just smiling.

Trash from the lower Assabet River on Saturday...

Trash from further upriver on the Assabet last Monday...

Trash from the Concord River on Wednesday...