The Connecticut's Tri-State Section

 

Got out on New England's longest river, the Connecticut, early on Wednesday morning.  Launched from the Pauchaug Brook Boat Launch in Northfield, MA which as a boat launch checks every box but one...a trash barrel.  After launching I paddled upriver soon passing over the submerged Tri-State boundary marker where the states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont come together.  

Next came the site of the Boston and Maine Railroad bridge (abandoned since 1970) its piers still "standing sentinel".  Note how calm things were before the wind woke up and got its act together...

...as opposed to the opening photo which shows when a busy southwest breeze later ran counter to the river's current.

Paddled in and around tiny Rock Island close to the river's Vermont side...

...where, according to The History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts 1875 by J.H. Temple and George Sheldon, at a spot a little above this island was one of the best places for seine fishing by Native Americans and early European settlers. 

Further upriver I reached Pomeroy Island...

...which, according to the same History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts, was named to memorialize eighteen year old Nathaniel Pomeroy who was killed near the island's northern tip during a skirmish with Native Americans on July 16, 1698.  He's said to be buried on the river's west (Vermont) shore.

Another half mile or so brought me to the confluence of the Ashuelot and Connecticut rivers on the New Hampshire side.  Entering the Ashuelot provided a welcome break from working against the Connecticut's steady current...

The Ashuelot on this day was quite serene yet man-made structures along its banks attest to times when the river is anything but serene...

There was a series of these timber-crib like structures on the Ashuelot's outside bank, perhaps built to prevent the adjacent farmland from erosion.  A little further up was a more recently built form of erosion control...

Stopped for lunch on a gravel bar where I came across this iron starfish...

My best guess is that it's the spokes for an industrial valve's handwheel with the outer ring missing. 

Getting back to erosion control, earlier on the Connecticut River I'd passed this clump of perhaps as many as 50 old automobile tires on the river's west bank...

Could this have been done in an attempt to control erosion or was it just dumping?

Near the tires I found this 3" circular glass lens with what looks like a ringed planet embossed on it...

It's almost identical to one I came across a few years ago, also in the Connecticut River...

Perhaps they're antique car horn buttons?

There was plenty of bald eagle activity with a distant and occupied nest...

An immature eagle...

...that was staying fairly close to this adult eagle...

The object of their attention may have been the several dead shad (?) seen floating downriver...

Trash encountered along the way was entirely plastic except for the aforementioned glass lens...