Quinsigamond and a "Nippy" Nashua

 

Lake Quinsigamond, situated between Shrewsbury and Worcester, MA, has plenty of what many smaller rivers are lacking of late...water.  On Tuesday morning I launched into the lake's east side from the Leo R. Corazzini Memorial Boat Launch in Shrewsbury.  After exploring the lake's north end I passed beneath Route 290 and looked down Quinsigamond under cloudy skies...

While paddling along the lake's west shore I saw this unmanned canoe moving against the wind...

Had me puzzled until I saw bubbles and then a scuba diver's air tank breaking the surface as he was towing the canoe...

I'm not sure what the diver was looking for but I have read accounts of divers having found Native American "mishoons" or dugout canoes submerged in Quinsigamond.  If I recall correctly the dugouts were found to have been weighted-down with rocks, perhaps as a way to store them over the winter.  

The cloud cover was mostly gone as I reached the lake's narrowest part...

Past the Route 9 bridge (opening photo) are several islands with this one being the smallest...

A blue heron patrolled the shoreline with a hint of fall foliage behind him...

On Thursday I paddled a bit of the Nashua River in Harvard, MA...

...where there was a real chill in the air...temperatures in the 40's F and a brisk NW breeze...

The railroad trestle near Still River Depot Road stood ready and waiting...

...to convey a parked CSXT train M427 from one side of the river to the other...

...upon the arrival of its new crew.  Four locomotives would be used in pulling more than 100 freight cars southward to Worcester and eventually Selkirk, NY.  This recently placed structure sits across from where the old depot stood...

...appreciated by newly arriving or departing train crews?

 

 

Trash from Quinsigamond on Tuesday came mostly from the lake's north end...

Oddest thing I came across in Quinsigamond was this empty 1.75-liter container which had been re-purposed as a fishing "bobber"...

...making it the biggest "bobber" I've ever seen.

Thursday's trash from the Nashua River included 107 "nip" bottles...