Wednesday's smoke-filled air had gone elsewhere by Friday morning when bright and crisp blue skies returned to eastern Massachusetts. In anticipation I launched early that morning into the Concord River from near Jug Island in the Riverhurst section of Billerica, MA.
The sun was still behind the trees as I headed downriver...
...with the Talbot Mill Dam in North Billerica being my destination.
Passed under the route 3A bridge...
... before reaching the river's Fordway Bar where paddlers need to slow down and proceed with caution...
...because of the bar being shallow with numerous rocks both above and below the water's surface. The bar begins just above the Pollard Street Bridge and runs for about a quarter of a mile to the millpond behind the dam.
I went ashore near the spot where the Middlesex Canal once allowed canal boats to leave the Concord River and travel to and from the Merrimack River via the canal. This photo was taken from a footbridge over the canal with the view being from west to east and the millpond in the background...
A sign near the canal lock explained its significance...
There's an ongoing process aimed at removing the Talbot Mills Dam thus allowing the river to return to its natural course of flow. Migratory fish will be able to pass upriver unfettered for the first time since the early 1700s. Since then a dam of one kind or the other at this location has hindered their passage.
After my short walkabout it was back upriver through the bar...
Trash was light with most of it found at spots where folks fish from the shore...
The river itself was, for the most part, trash-free.
No comments:
Post a Comment