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Showing posts from July, 2018

Summer's Many Points

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Headed out into the early morning fog that hung thick over the Sudbury River in Concord, Massachusetts this past Friday.  The day would later prove to be a scorcha', but for its first few hours was shrouded and mystical with a tropical feel.  When the fog did finally burn-off the above pictured velvet-antlered buck appeared. He, along with the blooming Cardinal flowers... ...and purple loosestrife served to remind that we've reached summer's midpoint. The week before I'd enjoyed the boundless amounts of salt air and water Gloucester, Massachusetts has to offer.  Four days of camping, paddling, swimming, and eating seafood.  The high point of my summer (to this point) was joining some 200 other human-powered boats in accepting the Blackburn Challenge and completing the 20- mile circumnavigation of Cape Ann's outer portion.   These two osprey had the best seat for watching the event's start in the Annisquam River...

Staking Out the Sebasticook

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As the sun rose in the eastern sky I paddled away from my campsite at Sebasticook Lake's southern end and headed north.  Other than the occasional and haunting calls of loons, silence prevailed.  Fog hovering above the water's surface looked as though it could possibly provide passage into another time period...and that would've been just fine with me as, in a way, that was exactly my intention...paddling to the spot where the remains of a sizable prehistoric fish weir complex  lurks beneath the surface.  It is said to be perhaps the oldest fish weir complex in North America and is comprised of hundreds of wooden stakes notable for having their crude pointed ends shaped by stone tools. By the time I reached the suspected location the fog had burned off and the shallow water above the weir was as smooth as glass.  I slowly paddled back and forth across the area straining my eyes in hopes of seeing some of the 600 plus documented wooden stakes.  While I didn't actuall