My Water Roots

This past Monday after a pleasant and tide-assisted paddle up the Cochecho River, I found myself nearing the end of tidewater in Dover, NH.  Expecting a waterfall I became a little concerned upon seeing only a huge brick building on my left and a wall of solid rock on my right... However, entering a portico on my left brought me under the brick building to where the falls and fish ladder came into view...  ...paddling a little further revealed more of the fall's majesty... A good bit of water has flowed over the falls since the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s.  However, it was not far from this spot that one of the most unusual and disturbing events of King Philip's War occurred some 350 years ago.  On a September day in 1676 gathered on a field near the falls were approximately 400 Native Americans (many being women and children) and approximately 200 English soldiers.  Historical accounts are all over the place in describing the events that unf...

Flipped the page on the calendar before launching into the Assabet River at Ice House Landing in Maynard this past Saturday.   With the new month of September now underway I couldn't help but  reflect on the most excellent August I can remember.  Water levels remained high enough to allow access to Fort Meadow Brook where the above bullfrog enjoyed this view of the old trestle... One theme of this past August was the generous amounts of rain resulting in easy access to otherwise hard-to-reach places.  For example, back in the middle of the month I was easily able to paddle past the above trestle and witness this Fort Meadow Brook osprey nest... August's high water levels also allowed me to ascend the Tully River's first mile above its confluence with the Millers River in Athol.  My reward...this view of Little Tully Mountain... On the Sudbury River, passage beneath the Old Town Bridge and looping back to the river's main channel was a viable o...