October Hodgepodge

The Massachusetts Central Railway locomotive rumbling across the swift flowing river confirmed that I was right where I wanted to be on the next-to-last day of October...on water flowing through the center of my state.  It's a place where this river's shores have provided refuge in the past.  To my surprise, other than the train and a few otters, not another soul was there.

The smaller print on the locomotive (above the word "Massachusetts") reads "The Ware River Route" and the train was doing just that... following the Ware River from South Barre down to Palmer, MA. I too would follow the river, but only down as far as the dam at Wheelwright.  The conditions encountered were representative of what I saw during most of October...plenty of water, more clouds than sun, and a rarely absent breeze.  The usual October show of colorful foliage was, for the most part, muted...


Some of the better October foliage I did encounter was on the Contoocook River...
...and by the nearby Hancock/Greenfield, NH covered bridge...
...with a little on the Assabet in Stow, MA....

And where the trees were challenged in the colorful department this locomotive on the New England Central RR in White River Junction tried to fill the bill...

Other paddlers also chipped-in with some fall colors such as Conrad and Erik on the Connecticut River...
...and Frank and Earl on the Tully River...

For a little October spooky effect throw in an abandoned railroad bed running alongside the Ware River...
...an abandoned stone wall? running up a hill at a bend in the Ware River...
....and the long-abandoned Middlesex Turnpike west of the Concord River...

In the "change is good" category note the open river where a broken dam formerly constricted flow...
...and a new bridge (bike trail) where the Old Colony RR once crossed the Assabet River...

And I'm left to wonder might lay ahead in days of November...
I'd be just fine with things a lot closer to the center.

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