Naumkeag Waters to the Sound

 

Dipped my paddle blades into some salty waters for a change on Wednesday morning.  Launched before 7am from the George F. McCabe Marina and Recreation Area in Salem, MA and headed out of the Danvers River towards Salem Sound (photo above).  The morning was warm with temperatures predicted to reach the mid 80s F. and the tide was rising.  Winds were calm until about 8am when a westerly breeze kicked in.  On the way to Winter Island I passed under both the Essex Bridge carrying Route 1A (up high) and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail bridge adjacent to it (down low)...

After passing Salem Willows and rounding Salem Neck I headed for Winter Island Light at the entrance to Salem Harbor...

...and a brief landfall at Waikiki Beach.

Then it was back to the Danvers River passing this sign showing current fuel costs for boaters...

Arrived at the railroad bridge just in time to see this MBTA train heading north to either Rockport or Newburyport...

...with one car in its consist decked out for our country's 250th anniversary...

With it now being high tide I paddled into and up the Bass River...

Once past ongoing construction work on the Hall Whitaker Bridge I reached a pond-like tidal basin...

According to historians the Bass River and the area around it was called Naumkeag by Native Americans. Mary Ellen Lepionka on the website HistoricIpswich.net provided this translation for the word Naumkeag: "Where there are eels" (referring to the Bass River in Beverly).

According to a 2015 article at WickedLocal.com (Herald Citizen) by John Goff, Looking Anew at Salem's and Beverly's Bass River, somewhere in this area a colonist named John Friendly built a Tide Mill for milling Indian corn back in the 1640s.  Tidal flow was harnessed for turning millstones.

The area is also noted for a gray seal nicknamed Shoebert who swam through a culvert into Shoe Pond where his antics entertained folks for several days back in 2022.  Saw no sign of him.  Did however see a loon, still in its winter colors...

...and several eider ducks...

A Google map showing the area where I spent my morning gunkholing the area...

This trip could be done from either the McCabe launch (as I did), or from the hand launch at Winter Island Park.  Bass River is best ascended at high tide (IMHO).

Trash recovered was found mostly on the shore where it'd been left by previous (higher) tides...