Are We There Yet?

 

Got out on the water twice this past week...the Sudbury River (Elm St. bridge above) 3 days before Wednesday's deluge and the Nashua River the day after it.

Last Sunday morning I ventured up the Sudbury River from Egg Rock in Concord, MA...

...to satisfy my curiosity as to whether or not Fairhaven Bay was iced over or open water. Made it as far as Martha's Point where the river was found to be iced over within sight of the bay and its Brooke Island...

So, instead of enjoying a cup of hot cocoa on the island, my cocoa break was taken at Martha's Point where I noticed a dead fish at water's edge...

My non-fisherman guess is that it's an alewife and, if so, does it indicate such fish being this far up the river or might it have been used as bait by a fisherman?   

These days red-tailed hawks are still to be seen...

On Thursday, after Wednesday's rain and wind storm, a visit was made to the Nashua River from the Oxbow N.W.R. in Harvard, MA.  The tributaries were generously contributing and the river had strong current...

The sun was trying its best to break through the clouds while the winds continued to gust out of the west...  

Trash was on the move with numerous empty plastic bottles floating along with the swifter current.  A natural trash trap downriver had corralled a good bit of plastic...

Post paddle I stopped at the Prospect Hill Road overlook, drank in this late afternoon view of  Wachusett Mt...

...and wondered if this may have been my final paddle of 2024.  Time and weather conditions will tell.
  

Trash from the Sudbury River on Sunday...

Trash from the Nashua River on Thursday included 71 "nip" bottles...