From there I headed upriver passing the site where Bissells Ferry was operated for 150 years by the Bissell Family. The ferry's long gone but this Bissell homestead remains on the river's eastern shore...
Just a bit beyond the ferry was the mouth of the Scantic River...
...and the southern end of the Windsor Locks Canal (below the rapids).
...before heading back down to Thompsonville. Arrived there just as a southbound New England Central Railroad freight train was passing through the town...
Shortly after taking the above photo I was passed by a silent electric-powered craft...
...I began looking for the spot where long ago vessels would've left the Merrimack and entered the Middlessex Canal via several locks. According to an article The Hadley House by Albert J. Welcome which appeared in the Middlesex Canal Association's Towpath Topics (Vol 27 No 2 March 1989) the entrance and the locks were filled in by the Lowell and Nashua RR in 1860. Therefore it's tough to find the actual spot. I used the steeple of the Shri Swamianaryan Hindu temple as an approximate reference point...
...which is on the river's south side. Old maps show the canal locks being located just a bit east or downriver from the temple between present-day Baldwin and Pratt streets. Passing through the locks at noon the Thoreau brothers still had to pull their boat six miles through the canal to Billerica and then row another 11 miles up the Concord River to their home port in Concord, MA. They covered 50 miles that day arriving in Concord after dark. BTW, could the operator of the locks at Middlesex Village have been Samuel P. Hadley (mentioned in the Towpath article), whom H.D.T. described as "a serene and liberal-minded man" as well as a "lover of the higher mathematics" in his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers?
Monday on the Connecticut...
On the day of my visit the Connecticut River was very low...the Thompsonville gauge measured 3450 cfs and resulted in my running aground fairly frequently. I found it hard to believe that boats laden with freight could have navigated through such shallow water up to Warehouse Point.
An air mattress hanging from a tree attested to how high water levels can go in the other direction...
My northern terminus was Curtis Island where I got this view towards the Rt. 91 bridge...
The following day I'd considered paddling around King's Island, but after seeing how low the water was I headed up to Thompsonville, CT instead. There, above the rapids and the canal's northern end, I launched from the Donald Barnes Boat Launch on the eastern side of the river. It's an excellent boat launch that checks all the boxes. After launching I headed upriver passing by old bridge abutments that once carried a roadway across the river...
Passed where Longmeadow Brook enters...
After entering Massachusetts I had the Six Flags amusement park on my left...
...where, with it now being post Labor Day and a weekday, all the rides were motionless and quiet...
Stopped for lunch at Willy's Island...
Wildlife seen over my 2 days on the Connecticut:
Green heron...
An egret...
An eagle...
I ended my paddling week on Friday with a visit to the Merrimack River in North Chelmsford, MA.
This year our 2024 calendar exactly matched that of the year 1839, the year John and Henry Thoreau traveled the Concord and Merrimack rivers up to Hooksett, NH. Not being sure how long it will be before the calendars coincide again I made it a point to paddle some of the Concord River on Saturday 8/31, the day John and Henry left from Concord, MA. Likewise, with this Friday 9/13 marking the day their trip came to its conclusion, I decided to paddle to a spot on the Merrimack that they'd passed through on their way home. The last day of their trip began Friday before 5 am near Reeds Ferry in Merrimack, NH and they made good time coming downriver with the help of a tailwind. I picked up their route where they were approaching the entrance of the Middlesex Canal in Middlesex Village (North Chelmsford back then, Lowell today) at around mid-day.
Looking downriver at their last stretch on the Merrimack...
...leaving a wake without the usual noise of an outboard engine. I wonder what the Thoreau brothers would've thought of the whole evolution of boat propulsion-from the simple oars and sail they employed, to steam, internal combustion, and the recently introduced electric power.
Shortly after passing under the Rourke Bridge...
Earlier in the week, on Sunday, Mrs.Trashpaddler and I participated in OARS annual river cleanup. We worked the Assabet River's shoreline between the Powder Mill Dam in Acton and the Waltham St, Bridge in Maynard. Near the dam were thick mats of algae...
Things got better above the impoundment area where the Assabet began to look like a river again...
Trash encountered during the week:
Sunday on the Assabet...
Tuesday on the Connecticut...
Friday on the Merrimack...
While searching for information regarding Windsor Locks and the Enfield Rapids on the Connecticut River I came across an article William Pynchon, the Agawam Indians, and the 1636 Deed for Springfield by David M. Powers which appeared in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts (Summer Vol 45 No 2 2017). In reading the article I learned that in addition to being a successful business man, William Pynchon was also a free thinker who didn't accept the so-called vacuum domicilium argument - a "nobody lives here" view - namely, that if there were no residents to be seen the land was up for grabs. In his dealings with Native Americans Pynchon recognized the Native Americans as the rightful "owners" of the land. Wikipedia mentions Pynchon in 1650 writing a book on religion The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption that was both banned and burned in Boston. As a result of the controversy Pynchon had to leave Springfield and return to England. Free thinkers were not to be encouraged back in those days.
2 comments:
❤️❤️❤️ Such an amazing eagle pic! And amazing commentary on history. I particularly love the closing sentence!
Thanks Anonymous
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