Scavenger Hunt Date Changed to July 11

Help out the Merrimack River Clean River Project on their scavenger hunt! http://www.cleanriverproject.com/

Nashua River Ecoli Count

Stay in your boat! The Nashua telegraph just reported some results of ecoli testing after this long stretch of rain. Ecoli count is supposed to be below 88 for swimming - Pepperell launch tested at 1000.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090624/NEWS01/906249886/-1/XML07

And... if you see kids swimming or jumping off the bridge - do them a favor and tell them please!!

Nashua River - getting better

Just a quick post about this year - the river is looking better than any year recently. I'm very pleased with the condition. I do need to look at where the small island is about a mile above the 2nd rt. 117 crossing and between 117 and the Oxbow, but I worked those late in the season last year so I'm hoping for good things.
Otherwise between 119 and the Oxbow in Harvard looks decent - a couple runs and we're clear.

Kayaking in the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge

Saturday was a gorgeous day so Nancy and I went for a paddle in the Oxbow in Harvard, MA. We headed downstream toward Rt. 2. It wasn't in bad shape, but I figured I'd get to the end of our paddle before filling my basket.
North of Rt. 2 I started picking up stuff - mostly a piece here or there. As we headed back, I grabbed a tire and some of the stuff that looked most hazardous - paint, motor oil, that kind of stuff.
There wasn't that much stuff overall - maybe 2 more tires and a few baskets of trash - hopefully in another week or two we can get back and clean it all up.
We ran into a group of 4 guys who do a trip down the river each year - it was their 30th year. They were very appreciative of the effort - maybe they remember what the river was like only 5 years ago, this month, when this story began.

Nashua River - 2A to the Ice House Dam

Saturday I had the chance to go for a paddle so I chose a place that others generally don't prefer to put in since I was by myself. Rt. 2A at the Nashua is covered with Poison Ivy and long grass that's ideal for ticks. Aside from that, it's a good launch point to clean up below the dam in Shirley.
I paddled upstream althought the current was stiff, and made it up to just below the train bridge - then it gets to fast and shallow to keep going upstream. I collected a little less than a basket full of trash, I was a bit surprised how little there was - maybe all this is starting to pay off?
Since I wasn't fully loaded and I don't like to give up unless I collect a tire or 2, I headed downstream and up the Squannacook River. At the joining of the two in a logjam I spotted a tire, but it was a truck tire - as in a tractor-trailer sized tire.
I noticed it was not lodged in so I wiggled it free and wrestled it onto the tree I was stopped at. After draining most of the water out I then rolled it down the tree to my kayak and flopped it on the deck. I thought I was gonna swamp my poor little boat! But I managed to get it situated, balance the rest of the garbage and very gingerly slide myself in.
Wow was that tire heavy! The boat was so unstable that several times I thought I was going to swamp. I did manage to get it back to the launch, unload it and drag it back to the truck - through the poison ivy of course. But it's out of there and fortunately it was not a long distance from the launch point - I'm glad I chose that stretch to work on.

Merrimack River Clean Up

I do a lot on the Nashua River, but my little kayak can't match up to what these folks are doing on the Merrimack River: http://www.cleanriverproject.com. Keep up the good work!

Kayak Season Opener

Today I had the opportunity to take my first paddle of the new year. I put in at 119 in Groton and paddled up to the Groton boathouse. There was only maybe a basket of trash along that distance, but I wasn't picking up trash, it was just a survey mission.
If anyone knows folks at the row club, I think one of their orange buoys is downstream just below Fitch's bridge on the western side.