Much Needed Water with a Pesky Wind

 

This past week brought our first nor'easter of the season, and with it came plenty of gusty winds which lingered several days past the storm's departure.  The storm left me needing to find places to paddle that had enough water and, at the same time, provided some shelter from gusty north winds.  On Sunday morning, in the last hours of calm before the storm, I got out on the Assabet River in Stow, MA.   Post-storm on Thursday I paddled the Assabet River in Concord, MA, and my paddling week ended on Friday with a visit to South Meadow Pond in Clinton, MA.  It was there that I found the most sheltered and most colorful foliage (above photo) of the week.

Sunday morning the Assabet River in Stow had adequate water depth up to the Route 62 bridge in Gleasondale where such depth disappeared...

 Along the way I'd passed this riverside military tank...

...participating in a battle reenactment of some sort.

One usual sight now found to be missing was the Assabet River eagle nest...

...which as recently as this past spring had produced eaglets.

Post-storm on Thursday I paddled to the Egg Rock inscription in Concord...

...where water levels were noted to have risen from the recent rain event.  There appeared to be just enough water for paddling up to West Concord.  My boat and I to made it about 3 miles up to the MBTA railroad bridge in West Concord where it became too shallow... 

Along the way I passed under this game camera mounted to a tree which had subsequently fallen across the river...

Also encountered this mink (or perhaps small otter)...

On Friday I went west into Worcester County where I found less windy post-storm conditions in South Meadow Pond in Clinton...

The boat launch there allows access to Mossy Pond and Coachlace Pond in addition to South Meadow Pond.  Back in 1830, when this area was part of Lancaster, a map drawn by James G. Carter found on the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center shows one pond, 35-acre Mossy Pond, where the three ponds are today...

The map also shows the course of the nearby Nashua River's south branch before the creation of Wachusett Reservoir. The waters of South Meadow Pond enter the Nashua River's south branch downstream of the present Wachusett Reservoir.

After launching I paddled towards the railroad culvert allowing passage into Coachlace Pond...

Arrived there just in time to see CSX RR freight-train M427 pass over the culvert I'd just passed under...

The train's 3 locomotives had 126 cars in tow and was moving right along towards Worcester.

Headed down the length of Coachlace Pond to its north end outlet...

...before returning to South Meadow Pond and then over to Mossy Pond...

 

 Mossy also had this reminder of saltier waters...

Back on South Meadow I decided to do a short portage across South Meadow Road to experience, for the first time, the part of the pond cut-off from the rest.  Two tributaries enter this section of the pond, one from the north...

...and the other from the pond's southwest corner...

Here the clear water entering from South Meadow Brook contrasted sharply with the opaque clay-colored water at this end of the pond.  A long-used landfill abutting the pond's south end was capped back in the 1990s and additional work is ongoing.  Barriers such as this appear to have been installed to prevent groundwater beneath the landfill from entering the pond...

The colors of fall reflected in the clay-colored water...

 

Came across a couple of venerable-looking turtles sunbathing in Coachlace Pond.  One's just letting it all hang out...

...while the other seemed indifferent to all...

A pair of ducks appeared that didn't match any of my guidebooks...

Trash from Sunday...

...included this 8-ounce glass jug made by Turner Glass most likely in the 1920s and perhaps contained vinegar or apple cider...

Trash from Thursday...

Trash from Friday (Coachlace Pond's outlet end)...

...and South Meadow and Mossy ponds...

    

Quinsigamond and a "Nippy" Nashua

 

Lake Quinsigamond, situated between Shrewsbury and Worcester, MA, has plenty of what many smaller rivers are lacking of late...water.  On Tuesday morning I launched into the lake's east side from the Leo R. Corazzini Memorial Boat Launch in Shrewsbury.  After exploring the lake's north end I passed beneath Route 290 and looked down Quinsigamond under cloudy skies...

While paddling along the lake's west shore I saw this unmanned canoe moving against the wind...

Had me puzzled until I saw bubbles and then a scuba diver's air tank breaking the surface as he was towing the canoe...

I'm not sure what the diver was looking for but I have read accounts of divers having found Native American "mishoons" or dugout canoes submerged in Quinsigamond.  If I recall correctly the dugouts were found to have been weighted-down with rocks, perhaps as a way to store them over the winter.  

The cloud cover was mostly gone as I reached the lake's narrowest part...

Past the Route 9 bridge (opening photo) are several islands with this one being the smallest...

A blue heron patrolled the shoreline with a hint of fall foliage behind him...

On Thursday I paddled a bit of the Nashua River in Harvard, MA...

...where there was a real chill in the air...temperatures in the 40's F and a brisk NW breeze...

The railroad trestle near Still River Depot Road stood ready and waiting...

...to convey a parked CSXT train M427 from one side of the river to the other...

...upon the arrival of its new crew.  Four locomotives would be used in pulling more than 100 freight cars southward to Worcester and eventually Selkirk, NY.  This recently placed structure sits across from where the old depot stood...

...appreciated by newly arriving or departing train crews?

 

 

Trash from Quinsigamond on Tuesday came mostly from the lake's north end...

Oddest thing I came across in Quinsigamond was this empty 1.75-liter container which had been re-purposed as a fishing "bobber"...

...making it the biggest "bobber" I've ever seen.

Thursday's trash from the Nashua River included 107 "nip" bottles...

 
 

Scraping Bottom on the Concord

 

On Sunday morning there were numerous indicators of just how low water levels have become on the Concord River.  At the Egg Rock inscription there was plenty of dry real estate in front of it.

Downriver and past the Old North Bridge pipes which once conveyed liquids to the river were now exposed...

Further along another pipe, usually submerged, presently conveys treated wastewater into the river...

The many Canada geese on the river seemed more vocal than usual...perhaps because of this immature eagle...

...who was seen at several spots about a mile or two apart.

Another paddler mentioned his concern that his canoe's bow passenger might be seen by the eagle as a "lunch nugget"...

My turnaround spot was Brewter's Woods where a bit of fall foliage greeted me...

The pond behind the hill had lost most of its water...

Two critters that didn't seem to mind the low water levels were this egret...

...and this killdeer...

Not much trash of a floatable nature...with some exposed glass bottles...