Pat T
Member
Yesterday morning we put our two Hornbecks on the car and headed to the Old Calf Pasture in Concord, MA. This is an easy put-in on the Concord River just below the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet Rivers. The put-in area is wide and gravelly with ample parking on Lowell Road. There are three rivers to explore from this spot: upstream on the Sudbury or the Assabet and downstream on the Concord. We chose the Assabet as we had not paddled it before.
Heading upstream on the Concord a short distance, we went right at Egg Rock and began our trip up the Assabet. This section of the Assabet is so completely different from anything we had experienced on the Sudbury or Concord Rivers that is was difficult to believe we were in the same area. We paddled about 4 miles upstream (1:45 against a moderate current and 0:45 for the return). Even though we were very close to Route 2 and the Concord Rotary, the only time we heard road noise was in the area just before and after the Route 2 bridge. The river is shaded by enormous oak, ash and maple trees. Birds were singing everywhere: an oriole, many blackbirds and robins, a kingfisher, great blue herons, and a mating pair of turkeys dancing around a sandbar.
We were on the river before 10 am and saw no one until our return to Egg Rock. In contrast, the Concord River was a very busy place, including many novice kayakers happily heading downstream (we wondered how they would enjoy their paddle back to the Boathouse). We ended our morning with a quick trip down to the Old North Bridge before returning to the Calf Pasture.
All the rivers in eastern Massachusetts saw heavy flooding in April. There were areas of the Assabet that looked like the river had been well above its banks during the floods--maybe six feet higher that its current height. There were two large trees that were victims of the floodwaters, but these were easy to travel around.
More information about the Assabet River can be found by visiting the Organization for the Assabet River website http://www.assabetriver.org/. For example, we learned that Henry David Thoreau's favorite skinny dipping location was along the route we paddled.
This was a true gem of a paddle!
Heading upstream on the Concord a short distance, we went right at Egg Rock and began our trip up the Assabet. This section of the Assabet is so completely different from anything we had experienced on the Sudbury or Concord Rivers that is was difficult to believe we were in the same area. We paddled about 4 miles upstream (1:45 against a moderate current and 0:45 for the return). Even though we were very close to Route 2 and the Concord Rotary, the only time we heard road noise was in the area just before and after the Route 2 bridge. The river is shaded by enormous oak, ash and maple trees. Birds were singing everywhere: an oriole, many blackbirds and robins, a kingfisher, great blue herons, and a mating pair of turkeys dancing around a sandbar.
We were on the river before 10 am and saw no one until our return to Egg Rock. In contrast, the Concord River was a very busy place, including many novice kayakers happily heading downstream (we wondered how they would enjoy their paddle back to the Boathouse). We ended our morning with a quick trip down to the Old North Bridge before returning to the Calf Pasture.
All the rivers in eastern Massachusetts saw heavy flooding in April. There were areas of the Assabet that looked like the river had been well above its banks during the floods--maybe six feet higher that its current height. There were two large trees that were victims of the floodwaters, but these were easy to travel around.
More information about the Assabet River can be found by visiting the Organization for the Assabet River website http://www.assabetriver.org/. For example, we learned that Henry David Thoreau's favorite skinny dipping location was along the route we paddled.
This was a true gem of a paddle!
