Trash Paddler

Nice to see my Assabet River counterpart, the Trash Paddler is still at it, as am I. I realized I hadn't posted anything since spring. I'll post some more photos soon, but if you have time, check out what the Trash Paddler is doing.

Earth Day

I’d like to see Earth Day moved to a fixed day like the 3rd Saturday of April, for instance. I think when it falls on a weekday that leaves people to think that they missed it. Well Earth Day is pretty much every day for me so I don’t really pay it much attention.
Saturday I did one of my regular semi-annual projects. I take my wheelbarrow and walk up my street to the town forest and collect trash along the way. It’s probably only about a mile or so of road, but it’s a common littering spot.
The wheelbarrow was full and I headed back to the house by 8:30, then I took my daughter to her Earth Day fundraiser on the town common and went kayaking.
I hadn’t been to the Oxbow at Depot Rd. yet this year and wanted to check up on it. When I go there, an officer from the environmental police showed up. We chatted for a few minutes about the state of the river and what needs to be done. He said there are only about 70 officers state-wide. I was surprised, figuring it would take many more than that.
He went on to explain that they really don’t focus on the illegal dumping sort of stuff – which probably makes up a significant part of what I am dealing with. Rather, they focus on the businesses that violate the laws as there’s money to go after. They also don’t spend any time on the rivers.
Anyway, I paddled downstream toward Rt. 2 to find out what the condition of that stretch of river was. Not bad, on the whole. When I got near Rt. 2 there were 3 tires, but other than those, there were mostly just bottles and cans. I piled a tire on the stern and then tried something I hadn’t – I put another tire on the bow – a tricky maneuver, but it worked. I had to balance the laundry basket on the rear tire, so for the remainder of the trip I had to be cautious about that.
I only made the 1 trip as my shoulder’s been sore and I had a number of other things to do, but next time I know what to expect. All in all, the Oxbow’s not in bad shape – a bit of a surprise considering all the flooding we’ve had.

Nashua River - Flood Stage

I went out on the Nashua River saturday - technically I guess it is at flood stage. It was very fast - when I went from Pepperell to Rt. 225, the water was doing something I'd not seen before.
Looking at the river from the downstream side of the 225 bridge, there were rapids. Not huge rapids, but waves with white water. Very strange for that part of the river. Just upstream from that the water was unusually fast - virtually impossible to paddle upstream. So, I got to hit the rapids downstream ;-)
All in all, still a good day, some new debris, and I picked up a good bit of it, but always more - especially when there is flooding like there has been.
Well, looks like more rain on the way, we'll see what that brings.

Kayak Season Opener

I declare kayak season is open! Yesterday I put in on the Nashua River at the Pepperell/Groton line. The water was still pretty high from the previous week's rains, but not too bad.
I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of trash... typically after a flood, there's a ton of trash in the river, but not this time. I paddled from Pepperell up to the Boathouse and back and only collected one basket full of trash. No tires. No hazardous or nasty stuff. Just some bottles and cans and cups.
Nice day, the river's in good shape, and kayak season is here... all is right with the world.