A Nitty Gritty Assabet River

 

The Assabet River's water level yesterday was low to the point where the bare bones of the long gone wooden railroad trestle, where the Reformatory Branch once crossed the river near Spencer Brook (above photo), were breaking the surface.    The brook itself was down to a trickle...

It was an exceptionally quiet Sunday morning where more deer than people were encountered....

Several old bottles tried to tell their own stories:

The oldest was this Smith, Kline, and French Co. medicine bottle possibly dating to between 1891 and 1915...

Perhaps second oldest was this 'French Square' jar of the F. H. Roberts Co. Boston, MA that possibly dates to the 1910s or 1920s...

...and most likely once contained hard candies.

A handsomely embossed one-pint wine bottle possibly dating to the 1930s...

A beer bottle embossed with the words "High Life" seemed to contradict the conditions encountered on the Assabet...

...and left me wondering why the name of the company wasn't embossed as well.  

All of the above date-range suggestions came from Artificial Intelligence which seems almost too eager to provide them.

The shell of a deceased snapping turtle...

 Despite the lack of rainfall these mushrooms were abundant...

While the Assabet didn't have nearly as many Cardinal flowers as the Concord River, it still had a few of their delicate flowers...

Trash, both plastic and glass, wore the river's patina...

Post-paddle and while driving home we got a good dose of rainfall which will help replenish the local rivers.