Impromptu "WHOA" Paddle

The weather forecast Thursday morning was rather bleak with meteorologists predicting afternoon snow squalls ushering in bone chilling temperatures.  However, there would be a brief window of tolerable conditions in the late morning.  Thus an impromptu "Winter Haters of America" (WHOA) paddle was set into motion and I drove southward to Kellogg Street in Framingham and launched into the Sudbury River.  Spun a "nip" bottle and it pointed downstream so I headed that way...

Skies were cloudy but the winds were on the light side.  Soon I reached the bend where the river was relocated upon the building of the Mass Pike in the 1950s.  Instead of continuing northward the river was diverted to run alongside the pike's eastbound lanes...

Reached the Fiddlers Green Dam at Simpson Park and noted a warning sign I'd not seen on previous visits...

Usually I portage to the dam's right side, but on this day I wasn't planning to do so and instead landed on the river's left side...

...where I found a very short and too easy to pass up portage route.  Just to my landed boat's right is a structure allowing river water to be diverted into a millrace?...

...which passes under a short bridge...

The bridge formerly carried vehicular traffic on Fenwick Street over the millrace before the Mass Pike cut the road in two.  The abandoned road today...

In doing the portage and short paddle down the millrace I saw no signs or ruins of a mill.  Later research online would provide few answers as to who built the dam and for what purpose.  As frustrated as I was, AI was having an even worse time of it.  Apparently, AI is incapable of saying it just doesn't know! Ultimately, I came across a Framingham 1895 Atlas by Barnes and Jenks which showed a dam and saw mill at this location.  I also came across this mention of the Fiddlers Green Dam in the City of Framingham, MA Hazard Mitigation Plan Update 2023..."Fiddlers Green Dam, Landham Pond Dam, and Packard Dam do not have federal or state requirements because they do not meet the official definition of a dam because of height or impounded capacity."  The plan shows the Fiddlers Green structure as being privately owned.  Is it a dam?  If not, what is it?

This photo shows the low-drop dam as it appears from downstream...

 Leaving the Simpson Park area I crossed under the aforementioned Mass Pike...

...as patches of blue sky began to appear.

After another mile or so I reached the Saxonville Mills and Central Street Dam...

My return trip just past noontime saw enough sunshine to require shades...

...however the wind was beginning to gather strength.

While out on the river I found myself thinking of the tragic accident which occurred in Newburyport on Wednesday morning. According to news reports, a man working on a bridge repair project lost hold of his skiff near the shoreline and, in trying to regain possession of the skiff, was swept from shore by the tidal current.  He was last seen clinging to the side of the boat.

The sun still prevailed as I approached the Central Street Bridge near where I'd launched from...

  

    

Trash on Thursday was of a plastic nature and included 35 "nip" bottles...