Sudbury River's Got Moxie

Launched this past Tuesday morning at Sherman's Bridge in Wayland, MA where water levels in the Sudbury River were found to be still on the high side...

This left me cautiously optimistic that I might be able to float over the top of the sheet-piling barrier where the waters of Pantry Brook enter the river...

Approached slowly and found passage into the Pantry Brook Wildlife Management Area was mine for the taking.  Just inside the barrier I watched a northern water snake swim across my path...

The WMA area opens into a large expanse of marshland and is only accessible by boat during periods of unusually high water levels...

A cormorant used a wood duck nest box for a diving board...

A group of white-tailed deer were seen grazing along the shore...

Once back on the Sudbury River I was able to paddle right up to the earthen dam holding back Farrar Pond in Lincoln, MA...

Further downriver Lee's Bridge shadowed a kayaker's passage...

The day was a beauty with a brisk and refreshing breeze.  Went ashore at Brooke/Scout's Island...

 

On Thursday under cloudy skies and eventual rain showers I headed up the Sudbury River from Rt. 20 in Wayland with hopes of entering Heard Pond.  

Approaching Pelham Island Road Bridge ...

Arriving at the spot where I'd exit the river I found an unobstructed passageway leading to the pond...

...which soon opened before me...

The high water levels allowed for a circumnavigation of the pond's island...

...which is about the same size as Fairhaven Bay's Brooke Island.  

Back on July 31, 1859 Henry David Thoreau boated upriver to Saxonville, and in passing today's Heard Pond wrote in his journal..."We could not now detect any passage into Pelham Pond, which at the nearest, near the head of this reach, came within thirty rods of the river." (Journal entry found on the Walden Woods Project website.)

My two outings on the Sudbury River this week provided 2 eagle encounters:

One with an eaglet in the river's long-time nest...

...the other with an adult eagle who kept a close eye on me...

I'm wondering if this eagle might be the same "dark-eyed" eagle I often see on the Assabet River.

Trash on Tuesday consisted of flotsam most of which was found in the shallow waters around Sherman's Bridge where it had previously been litter on dry ground.  More plastic bags of clothes were found in the river below Lee's Bridge...

Thursday's trash, in addition to two dozen "nip" bottles, had an empty quart-bottle of Moxie possibly dating from the 1920s...

The Moxie bottle with A.B.CO. on the base...

According to an article on the Society of Historical Archaeology website by Bill Lockhart and Bob Brown, "So, Moxie bottles with the 'A.B. Co.' and no date codes can be dated between 1914 and 1925."

If correct this means the bottle is possibly 100 years old and despite all those years looks pretty good...perhaps an aftereffect of its original contents?