RiverFest 2009 to Celebrate Wild & Scenic Status

According to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers website, the United States has 3,500,000 miles of rivers and, of those, only slightly more than one quarter of one percent (11,434 miles) are designated as Wild & Scenic. We, who live in the SuAsCo basin are very fortunate to have 29 miles of our local rivers so designated and thereby protected for future generations.
This upcoming Saturday, June 13th and Sunday, June 14th, the Sudbury, Assabet, & Concord Wild & Scenic River Stewardship Council will present the 8th Annual RiverFest. RiverFest is a weekend of celebration on and around the rivers. All events are free and open to the public. For more details on their wide variety of programs visit this link
Every river should be so appreciated!

Lower Sudbury & Assabet to Rt. 2 and Back

Late this morning, under a rapidly improving June sky, I launched into the Sudbury River and paddled downriver to Egg Rock. I found that the 'ghost ship' was slowly migrating upriver and still not secured to anything...

While it's not the most attractive boat, it still floats and appears to be seaworthy.
At the Calf Pasture, a brief shore raid was conducted to cleanup after some shore fishermen. I then relaunched and headed upriver on the Assabet. Water levels are the lowest they've been in quite a while. In fact, most of the river bottom is visible thus leaving the Assabet with few secrets. I spent a good deal of time poking around recently eroded areas of riverbank in my continuing quest for hand-tooled pieces of stone. In that regard I had no luck, but I did manage to find a machine tooled piece of cast iron from the distant past. I believe it is a piece of a railroad car coupling device from the late 1800's or early 1900's. Here are two views of it...


It was found below the old Reformatory Branch railroad grade just downriver from a long gone bridge over the Assabet. This rail line was built in 1879 and shut down in 1927. Harold I. Judkins wrote an article about his memories of the Reformatory Branch in which he mentioned coal being brought to the prison twice each month in 20 four-wheel link and pin dump cars. The article appeared in the B & M Bulletin Spring 1980 edition and was titled I Remember Reformatory Station. Perhaps this coupling device came from one of those coal cars?
Trash was mostly old stuff recently exposed due to falling water levels. Plastic bags and more glass bottles than usual. Biggest bottle was a half-gallon Jack Daniels jug and the smallest was a medicine-sized bottle labeled Grand Union Tea Company.
Wildlife observed were mallards, Canada geese, moscovy ducks, and a hairy-legged spider the size of my hand. This guy could walk on water, quite fast, too! Numerous songbirds, pleasantly, made their presence known as well.
A little ways past Route 2, I turned around and headed back downriver to Egg Rock then up the Sudbury River to my takeout location.
My trash count for the day was 54 pieces and they assembled on the beach for this group photo...

Of the 54, 18 were recyclable (9 redeemable) and 36 were misc. rubbish such as plastic bags, styrofoam, monofilament fishing line, etc. YTD total stands at 2231.

Sudbury River - S. Bridge to Pantry Brook & Back

With hopes of combining both moonlite and a sunrise into a Sunday morning trash patrol, I launched a little before dawn into the Sudbury River and began heading upriver. The nearly full moon had either retired early or was hiding behind cloud cover in the western sky. The anticipated sunrise would follow-suit after providing just this little tease, photographed downstream of Heath's Bridge.
The trash at Heath's Bridge wasn't bad today. All but one piece was old stuff recently exposed by a further drop in water level. I left the bridge area with an even dozen.
I arrived at Fairhaven Bay to find not another soul except a deer foraging on the eastern shore. Between here and Lee's Bridge I would see 3 more deer including this young one...

Even though the nearly full moon was concealed by clouds, it still seemed to live up to its reputation in regards to increased wildlife activity.
Upstream of Lee's Bridge I watched as a red-tailed hawk maintained a regal perch, at the top of a pine, despite the small black bird that continuously flitted annoyingly about his head.
Near the mouth of Pantry Brook I noticed a beaver on the top of his lodge. When he disappeared from view, I thought he had seen me. However, he swam towards my boat, dove under the surface and soon reappeared with some sticks in his mouth. These were brought back to the lodge and quickly put to use on his roof repair project...

I turned around here and began heading downriver. On the way, I encountered this small duck/duckling...

His most notable feature was a whitish bill with a black stripe on it. He also spent quite a bit of time underwater. My uneducated guess would be a young ring-necked duck?
Other wildlife observed today were red-winged blackbirds, swallows, wood ducks, mallards, Canada geese, musquash, large and small turtles, and many great blue herons.
Entering Fairhaven Bay required some grass paddling...

I guess this is how the river earned its Native American name, Musketaquid, which is said to mean "grass grown river". With the now shallower depths, the long grass, rooted to the riverbed, is visible as it leans downriver with the current.
The sky was much improved as I approached Heath's Bridge...

Paddling under the bridge I counted 7 fishermen casting from the shore there.
After passing under the Route 2 bridge, I found two orphaned canoe paddles perched on some rocks and returned them to the nearby canoe livery.
At my takeout location my trash count for the day was 14...

Of these, 7 were recyclable (4 redeemable) and 7 were misc. trash such as monofilament fishing line, styrofoam, paper plates etc. My YTD total stands at 2177.
Musical accompaniment was provided by The Pat Metheny Group's Last Train Home, and Kevin Welch's Early Summer Rain which opens with "I dream with my eyes open, I see with my eyes closed..."

Sudbury River - S. Bridge to Lee's Bridge and Back

Driving north from Framingham this morning, following my early morning stint at work, I could see nothing but blue skies ahead as the earlier cloud cover retreated to the south. Shortly thereafter my kayak and I were heading upstream on the Sudbury River and the clouds can be seen in the distance. Not too far from where I launched at the South Bridge (Rt. 62), I came upon this tree bearing a rather large beaver notch. Looks as if the beaver is enjoying this tree and wants to prolong his dining experience...

Trash was spotty at first and most of it was stuff that only recently emerged as water levels dropped. I reached Heath's Bridge with a baker's dozen but after 3 short forays ashore, on either side of Heath's Bridge, my count had soared to 76. This year's shore-fishing season is well underway and it appears the group that fishes at this location prefers to throw their trash at their feet.
Once underway again, I was surprised to find 3 pieces of trash at Martha's Point. Usually this area is spotless.
A little after high noon, I reached Fairhaven Bay was it was all mine for the taking...

Passed across the bay with a nice breeze at my back and before I knew it, I was landing my boat at Lee's Bridge. This made a nice spot to have everyone disembark for a group photo...

Then, once they were all stowed and comfy again, I began the trip back downriver.
Picked up another 3 bait tubs and the cover to someone's catalytic converter on the way back.
Wildlife observed today were red-tailed hawks, red-winged blackbirds, tree swallows, cardinals, a kingbird, mallards, and two large snapping turtles swimming just below the surface.
My trash count for the day was 86. Of these 21 were recyclable (9 redeemable) and 65 were misc. rubbish consisting of plastic bags, styrofoam bait tubs, and several wads of monofilament fishing line. My YTD total stands at 2163.

Upper Concord River - Egg Rock to Ball's Hill

Today, I was fortunate enough to greet the month of June in proper fashion on the Concord River, during a mid-day trash patrol.
However, the day and month actually started off in a bit of a strange way, when on my way to work, I came upon this couple out for a little early morning window-shopping...

After work, I launched into the lower Sudbury River and paddled to Egg Rock and the junction with the Assabet and Concord Rivers. Rounding the point of land near the Calf Pasture I came upon the day's first trash, left by some shore fishermen...

It's hard to understand how someone could leave a mess like this when there are 2 trash barrels in the immediate vicinity. Monofilament fishing line retrieved from here was deposited in the nearly full receptacle located downriver at Great Meadows landing...

Also at the Calf Pasture shore today was this ghost ship...

This boat had been completely stripped and appeared to be only beached and not tied- off to anything.
Between Lowell Road and the Old North Bridge a Baltimore oriole was seen. Hopefully this one's bright coloring will reveal him amidst the greenery...

Canada geese and their goslings were also abundant today and were practicing staying in formation...

In addition to the geese and orioles were blue herons, a cardinal, a kingbird, robins, and a red-tailed hawk being mobbed by smaller birds.
Just downstream of Ball's Hill I came to the point where the river runs wide and straight towards Bedford...

A fisherman arriving at this point from downstream told me of his only catch so far, a northern pike. As I turned around and headed back upstream, it appeared he did the same and headed back downstream.
The weather today was absolutely splendiferous and the many folks taking in the Old North Bridge area looked pleased to be visiting it on such a perfect day!
Arriving at my takeout location, my count for the day was 43 pieces of trash. Of these, 36 were recyclable (27 redeemable) and the remaining 7 were misc. rubbish...

My YTD total stands at 2077.

Assabet River - Egg Rock to Concord Jct. & Back

Today's trash patrol on the lower Assabet River was conducted at a slow and deliberate pace so it was only fitting that numerous turtles were encountered. After launching near Egg Rock I moved rather quickly, at first, to leave behind a cloud of crazed mosquitoes that had found me quite to their liking. Once the little blood-suckers had been left behind I began to slowly paddle upstream on the Assabet River. Just past the Leaning Hemlocks I encountered two powerboats carrying a group of fishermen that inquired as to the name of the river they were fishing in. Reaching the haunts of the sometimes headless faux coyote, I found that in addition to retaining his head, he has also managed to attract a faux mate...

With lower water levels, Dodge Rock is now worthy of its name...

At Willow Island a third faux coyote stood watch over the island's upstream end...

Immediately across the river, some real wildlife consisting of a great blue heron, Canada geese and 3 deer had clustered at a safe distance from the coyote...

The heron took flight leaving the doe to wonder what I was...

Just before reaching Spencer Brook I noticed this wheel and tire on the river's west bank...

Unfortunately, it's a little too big/heavy for my boat to handle.
Trash today was predominately plastic bags and plastic sheets. At the mouth of Nashoba Brook, I came upon a large sheet of material similar to silt fence. The sheet was approximately 12 feet long by 5 feet wide. May have come from last year's dam rebuilding project. In the same area was another sheet of blue tarp about 3 feet by 2 feet. These two sheets were rolled up and stored above deck as far aft as possible. A plastic 5-gallon Poland Springs jug was also stored topside on the rear deck. In addition to the plastic sheets were plastic/glass beer, soda and water bottles. One neat find today was a small glass cream bottle with Punkatasset Farm, Concord embossed on it. Too bad it was chipped and had a small hole...

Punkatasset is a Native American word and the hill above where the farm was located is Punkatasset Hill. Today the farm is known as Hutchins Farm and its history can be found at this link
Getting back to turtles, near Nashoba Brook I came upon this fairly large snapper...

Turtle measured about a foot from head to tail. A short distance away, another snapper of similar size had pushed up a small hill of mud...

Other critters seen today were a woodchuck, an osprey, a turkey vulture, tree swallows, mallards, muscovy ducks, and numerous dragonflies. Woodpeckers were heard but not seen.
On the trip back downriver, it was nice to see a few other boats (canoes) on the river, though the majority of boats seem to stay on the Sudbury and Concord Rivers.
At my takeout location my count for the day was 71 pieces of trash...

Of these 23 were recyclable (12 redeemable) and 48 were misc. rubbish such as plastic bags, styrofoam, etc. My YTD total stands at 2034.

Assabet River-Ben Smith Dam to Gleasondale Dam

Today I felt priviledged to spend my late morning and early afternoon paddling the waters of the Assabet River between Ben Smith's Dam in Maynard to Gleasondale Dam in Stow. As a trash patrol it was pretty much a bust for this 5.3-mile section of river yielded only 17 pieces of trash and 6 of those were submerged. A tip of my hat to those responsible for keeping such a long stretch of river so free of trash!
After launching at Icehouse Landing near the Maynard DPW yard, I headed upriver passing under the White Pond Road and Sudbury Road bridges. For much of the trip, the Assabet River Rail Trail ran parallel to the river's course. Originally, this railbed carried the rails and trains of the Boston & Maine Railroad between South Acton and Marlboro. The Maynard to Hudson section was abandoned in 1941. At the two locations where the railroad crossed over the river, the bridges are long gone.
Near where the outlet from Lake Boone enters the river, I came upon this yellow flag in bloom...

Red-winged blackbirds were everywhere and some stayed quite close to their nest sites...

I paddled past several duck blinds though none were manned today. Painted turtles were sunning themselves atop nearly every rock or log and their much larger cousins, the snappers, lurked in the shallows. In one very winding and narrow stretch I came upon 3 small musquashes playing near the entrance to their cozy home...

Reaching Gleasondale I passed under the Route 62 bridge and paddled alongside the mill building towards the dam...

Pushing upriver just a little further allowed me this glimpse of the dam structure...

This marked the end of the road, so to speak, and a good spot to turnaround and begin the trip back to Maynard.
While there were no ultralight aircraft taking-off or landing at the small airfield in Stow as I passed by, I did spot this great blue heron getting itself airborne...

Other wildlife spotted today were mute swans, cardinals, a baltimore oriole, an eastern kingbird, a turkey vulture, and a couple of ducks. Oddly, there were no Canada geese seen today.
Arriving back at Icehouse Landing, it didn't take long to unload today's modest trash haul...

My count for the day was 17 pieces of trash. Of these, 9 were recyclable (6 redeemable) and 8 were misc. rubbish such as styrofoam, plastic etc. My YTD total stands at 1963.