Finding Deeper Waters

 

As a result of our long stretch of days without appreciable rain this past week I passed on visiting local rivers and instead sought deeper waters.   My search brought me to Salem Sound's Misery Islands, Lake Quinsigamond (photo above) out Worcester way, and Concord's Walden Pond.

On Monday I launched at Winter Island Park in Salem, MA and headed for the Misery Islands...

Came across this floating "Big Gulp" almost big enough to be mistaken for a lobster buoy...

Upon reaching the islands I chose Little Misery Island...

...rather than the larger "Great Misery" for making landfall...

Paddled around Great Misery where one section had the look of fall...

...around the next point of land was this white-tailed deer already wearing its darker coat...

The deer's visible ribs at this point in the year may not bode well for its chances of making it through the upcoming winter.

Thought about the Misery Island's name on my paddle back to Winter Island. According to the Trustees of Reservations website "In the 1620s, shipbuilder Captain Robert Moulton became stranded here during a winter storm- he described the ordeal as 'three miserable days' giving the islands their name."  Earlier in the season, back in May, I paddled to Saint Croix Island in Maine where Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, Samuel Champlain, and 77 other Frenchmen spent the winter of 1604/1605.  By the next spring 35 of their men were dead and many others still sick with scurvy.  Thus I'll always think of Saint Croix Island as being the most miserable of islands.  At any rate, I soon found myself approaching Fort Pickering Light and my safe harbor behind it...

On Thursday I got out on Lake Quinsigamond paddling it from end to end. With it being both post-Labor Day and a weekday, the lake was pleasantly quiet. The return trip offered this view of the Route 9 Bridge with Wigwam Hill further distant...

Retrieving a plastic bottle from the weeds I came across this very small snail on an arrowhead-shaped leaf...

...and realized that for him, on this day, this leaf would probably constitute his whole universe.

Back in the late 1800s Lake Quinsigamond was at its heyday as this  map from 1898 shows.

Wrapped up the week, Friday, on a moody Walden Pond in Concord, MA paddling alongside my grandson, John...

A coastal storm churning for the past several days off the coast of Massachusetts sent clouds, a northeast breeze, and occasional spurts of mist inland.  At some point we most likely paddled over the spot in the pond where Thoreau recorded a depth of 100 feet.  A United States Geological Survey article Hydrology and Trophic Ecology of Walden Pond by Paul J. Friesz and John R. Colman states "The maximum measured depth 100.1 feet was within 2 feet of that measured by Thoreau in the winter of 1846.  The article's author's also state "Walden Pond is the deepest lake in Massachusetts."

Trash for the week:

Monday on Salem Sound...

Thursday on Lake Quinsigamond...