Finding Fair Haven

Took a little journey up the Sudbury River this morning en route to Fairhaven Bay.  Given the splendid conditions encountered at Nashawtuc Road Bridge it seemed a capital idea.



The inscription at Egg Rock showed water levels having dropped another half foot or so since my last visit on May 5th...

Not everyone had this Sunday morning off from work as this Keolis crew working on the railroad attests...

  
The absence of fishermen, other than two I saw fishing from Heath's Bridge, surprised me as it seemed fish were leaping clear out of the water all over the place.

Once past Heath's Bridge I had the river...

 ...Fairhaven Bay...

...and the bay's Brooke Island all to myself...

 
On my trip back downriver I encountered some newbies at Clamshell Bank...

Trash was very light consisting of plastic bags, a deflated soccer ball...

... and the first beer can I've encountered with an image of a car-topped canoe...

Reminds me of the opening scene in a certain 1970s movie which featured some great banjo playing.  The canoeists in that movie didn't find the Fair Haven that I did.

In the Company of Musquash

Spent the best part of yesterday afternoon paddling the Assabet River from Ice House Landing in Maynard to the village of Gleasondale in Stow.


Aside from 2 other kayakers, the critters mostly encountered were many mushquashes (aka Muskrats).  They were here, there, and everywhere.  Some patrolled the shoreline...

 ...while others passed like ships in the night...

This recently returned eastern kingbird regally watched over the proceedings...

Clear passage up and downriver was impeded by two fallen trees at the same location...

The view (above) is looking downriver about a half mile below Route 62.  On the left side is a submerged log with barely enough water above it to allow my boat to slide across.

Route 62 and the Gleasondale mill building basked in the afternoon sunshine...

Thoughts of ascending Fort Meadow Brook ended with this view of the box culvert...

Trash gathered up along the way...

Still more Scope bottles.

Whitehall Reservoir Respite

Yesterday, having both morning and afternoon jobs in the town of Hopkinton allowed a paddle to be sandwiched in between.  It was my first paddling of a very nice body of water that for some reason had never crossed my radar before.  The boat launch is at the north end of the reservoir near the village of Woodville and as boat launches go it's a good one.  Only thing missing is a porta-john.

Signage at the ramp spells out the rules...

In my time on the 592 acre reservoir I saw only 2 power boats and one other kayaker.  Given that Whitehall Reservoir was once considered a backup source of drinking water for greater Boston, its waters are sparkling clean, with islands and a shoreline that have seen little development. 
 
The view heading out from the launch...

Before Whitehall Brook was dammed to enlarge the original Whitehall Pond in the late 1800s the upper portion of the reservoir was a large swamp.  Small islets (such as below in foreground) may indicate the way the swamp looked before the dam...

The outlet to Whitehall Brook which ultimately flows into the Sudbury River near its headwaters...

On a website concerning the Old Connecticut Path I came across this link explaining the earlier pond's proximity to the historic path.  It also mentions the Native American name for the area being "Quansigamog". 


Whitehall Reservoir was found to be relatively pristine from a trash point of view...

More Nibbling on the Nashua

Buoyed by yesterday's 3 mile upriver paddle from Still River Depot Rd., I decided to give another try to a downriver trip from Rt. 117 Cartop Boat Access in Lancaster.  I launched late in the afternoon of what was an absolutely beautiful day.  

A tree across the path to the river from the parking area was not a good omen.  Sure enough, no sooner had I launched and headed downstream than I encountered this bank to bank blockage...

Being the eternal optimist that I am, a muddy portage was undertaken with hopes it would be the only one needed. 
Back in the water things looked good for another quarter mile or so until after rounding this bend...

...another bank to bank blockage loomed...

Here I pulled my boat out and scouted a possible portage.  It didn't look good with no path, tons of poison-ivy, and some feisty mosquitos putting in their first appearance of the season.
So, I turned around and backtracked to the first blockage where ample plastic trash was available for the taking...

Only made a small dent....

Drove home while the sun was setting...car windows were down and with a temperature of 79 degrees F. thoughts of our horrid winter were fading fast.

Another Nibble of the Nashua

In June of 2012 I tried paddling downstream on the Nashua River through the Bolton Flats section, but was stopped after only one mile by a fallen tree which spanned the river from bank to bank.  So, this morning, equipped with a hand saw, I decided to tackle the same stretch of river starting instead from downstream and working my way up.
 
After launching at Still River Depot Road in Harvard, MA  my little adventure began under cloudy skies.  Things were peaceful and quiet...until a freight train was heard approaching from the north. I'd passed under the RR bridge (opening photo) just a short time before, so I turned about and made it back just in time to watch two CSX locomotives slowly pull a long train across the river on one of the last active sections of the Boston and Maine Railroad's former Worcester, Nashua, and Portland division...

 

 

Trains on this line move at only about 10 mph.  Once the train had disappeared, a pickup truck adapted for riding the rails followed in hot pursuit.

 

With quiet restored I resumed my trip and encountered these wood ducks in a slough...

 

Believe I heard wood thrushes for the first time this year in this same vicinity.

 

Passage upriver was allowed, thanks to the tree cutting work of others, until I reached this obstacle approx. 1.5 miles above Still River Depot Rd....

 

Thanks to the current being manageable my saw and I were able to prevail...

 

This spot is at a bend in the river and has become a repository for flotsam of all kinds...

 

 

There's enough trash here to fill several boats.

 

About 3 miles above the boat launch, and sure that I'd passed my 2012 ghost,  I turned about and headed back downriver under much improved skies.

 

Around this bend at a high bank...

...a blue heron enjoyed the view from up on high...

 

 

 

Sporadic bursts of gunfire erupted from the west side of the river...probably related to the Fort Devens military facility.

 

This small stone structure was nestled in the woods on the river's east side...

 

 

Trash and recyclables that went on to a better place...

 

 

 



 

To Sort or Not to Sort

Arrived at the Lowell Road boat launch in Concord, MA early this afternoon to find this bit of trash neatly placed at the base of a tree.  The contents of the bags indicated a group of folks had spent an enjoyable day alongside the river emptying plastic water bottles, soda and beer cans, food packaging, and bait tubs.  Not finding a convenient trash receptacle, they left it on the ground where someone else would have to deal with it, hopefully before animals ripped open the bags.

In deciding to deal with it, my first decision would be whether to sort out the recyclables or not.  Oddly enough, only this morning I'd read an article in the Boston Globe about this very issue in the neighboring state of Vermont.  The article mentioned how a new Vermont law will require the separating of recyclables from rubbish, and wonders what effect this will have on next year's Green Up Day in which volunteers clean up litter throughout the state.  The article states "A waste management official said it would be nearly impossible to get volunteers to separate the trash, but it might be irrelevant, because recyclables collected alongside roads are usually too wet and dirty for recycling."  Really?  Most of the folks I know who volunteer to clean up litter are willing to separate out the recyclables.  It can be done while collecting by using different colored trash bags, or at the conclusion of the collection.  Collectors are already wearing gloves so it's just one additional step in the process and it brings about a better end result.   Too wet and dirty for recycling?  First time I've heard that.

This is how the trash looked before being sorted...

The same trash, after sorting out the recyclables...

My feeling is, if I'm going to take the time to clean up the trash, it's worth taking just a little more time to make sure the recyclable materials don't end up being buried or incinerated.

Either way, with the orphaned trash removed, the area looks better...

Once finished I launched my boat and enjoyed a fine Cinco de Mayo paddle of the Assabet River between Egg Rock and Route 2.

Water levels have dropped quite a bit as this look at the Egg Rock inscription reveals...

Plastic and Styrofoam trash was found snagged on branches a good foot or so above present water levels.

This was the trash found while out in my boat...

Getting ready to surf his way out of the mess was this little guy...

Above Mine Falls

Saturday morning provided ideal conditions for the New Hampshire Appalachian Mountain Club Paddlers (NHAMCP) to begin another season of trash patrols.  Yesterday's event, as usual, was organized by Denise Hurt and included 12 boats, a mixture of kayaks and canoes. 

Early morning fog was just burning off as we assembled at Mine Falls Dam on the Nashua in the river's namesake city.

Shortly boats were launched and participants headed upriver scouring the riverbanks for trash...

It seemed everyone was glad to be soaking up some sunshine...

At a point approximately 2 miles above the dam, we turned about and began heading back to the boat launch...

That's when this "eye in the sky" put in an appearance above Mine Falls...

A first time drone encounter for this paddler.

With this assortment of trash removed from the river...

...participants enjoyed sandwiches provided by D'Angelo's.

Sorting of the trash showed there being 176 recyclables, 154 pieces of rubbish, 5 tires, and several boards.

Denise has additional trash patrols lined up for the first Saturdays of June, July, August, September, and October.