Category Archives: Kayaking

Peak Foliage

by

The fall foliage has just been spectacular this year. Golden yellows, bright oranges, and deep reds, with mostly sunny conditions to bring out the most color. This past weekend was the first one in a long time where I didn’t feel like I needed to take care of moving tasks, so I spent it on myself.

Saturday, I’d decided to go to King Richard’s Faire, so I took the motorcycle down to Carver. Just as I was approaching the Faire, I saw an electronic sign that they were sold out, so I turned around and took Route 58 most of the way home, enjoying the glorious fall foliage. Then, I decided I hadn’t been on the bicycle in a while, so I chucked it in the back of the car and got directions to the nearest bike path, which turned out to be the Neponset Greenway.

I’d never done the Greenway before, but it was quite nice. I parked near a playground in Dorchester, took the path outbound just past the Red Line bridge, and then turned around and took to a point just past Mattapan station. The trail actually goes further, to Paul’s Bridge in Readville, but it was getting late and I had some errands to run. I definitely plan to do the whole trail sometime.

Sunday, I took the kayak out onto the Charles in Dedham. I was uncertain where I wanted to start from, but eventually decided to put in at the parking space along Great Plain Avenue, paddled past the put in at the Dolan Center, through Motley Pond, past the Bridge Street bridge to Route 109 and back — a round trip of around six miles.

It was just gorgeous. I had the Nikon with me, and did the downstream leg in very leisurely fashion, spending a lot of time taking pictures. I like bright saturated colors, with deep blue skies, so I used a polarizer filter on the lens. A polarizer suppresses white surface glare from objects, leaving colors more saturated. There is also a band of the sky that is also polarized; a polarizer filter with the proper orientation will deepen the blues and increase the contrast with the clouds. My sunglasses, like most, are also polarized, so I was experiencing the bright colors as I paddled.

The first bend in the riverOverhanging branches with backlit yellow and red leaves reflected in the waterGold and deep redRed tree and deep blue skyStarkly yellow tree beyond a sandbarTree with flushes of goldFall foliageYellow tree and its reflectionFoliage along the CharlesOverhanging TreesMr. MallardThe far side of Motley PondCirrus clouds over Motley pondGolden trees from the passage beyond Motley PondSmall shack along the river near Bridge Street

Photography on the river is surprisingly difficult. In the sun, it’s a contrasty environment, as one side of the river is likely in shade and the other sunlit, and the dark water tends to fool the camera’s light meter, leading to pictures that are too light. The camera also tends to record the yellows of trees taken with the polarizer as more green than they appear to the eye; I’ve used a selective color correction to adjust the yellows closer to what I was experiencing.

Because of the drought we’ve been experiencing, the water level was quite low; there were visible sandbars in several places; in others there was just barely enough water to float the kayak, and I ran aground a few times.

The river meanders back and forth throughout Dedham. A little ways past the Dolan Recreation Center, it widens out to a broad area called Motley Pond; this is a great place to see birds. The river splits in two, going around a central island in two very shallow streams. I saw a couple of swans at the far end of the shallower branch. Motley Pond is not a great place to run aground; while it’s shallow, and you can run aground, the bottom is muck, not sand, and it’s not a place where you can get out and tow the boat to deeper ground.

Past Motley Pond, in the passage leading to the Bridge Street bridge, I saw a Great Blue Heron perched on a dead tree. The best way to deal with herons is not to make any sudden moves. I stopped paddling, and let the current take me closer, and used the zoom lens get some pictures. Herons, especially their eyes, always remind me that birds are dinosaurs.

Great Blue HeronGreat Blue HeronGreat Blue Heron

Speaking of dead trees, there were a lot of them along the river. A tree growing along the river strikes me as a classic Faustian bargain.

Turtles basking on a dead tree.

The tree gets plenty of water and nutrients, but eventually the river will undercut the roots, until it starts leaning into the river. Finally, the tree is completely undercut, and will fall into the river, where it dies.

The goal was to reach the Route 109 bridge. Like most of the bridges on the river, the current bridge is an expansion of a much older, single lane stone bridge. The upstream side is concrete, with cast arches matching the arches of the original bridge. The current deck is much wider than the original bridge, and spans both the concrete expansion plus additional width cantilevered over the side of the original bridge with additional concrete supports outboard of the original bridge.

Today's destination, the Route 109 Bridge. Upstream, concrete sideDownstream side of Route 109 bridge, showing original stonework and later concrete piers

By the time I reached the Route 109 bridge it was starting to get very late, and the sun was starting to get low in the sky. It was still warm in the sun, but the sun was low enough now that a lot of the river was shady. So I mostly put the camera away, and started paddling at the fastest rate I could comfortably sustain. Back in the Dedham loops, I saw a doe and its fawn lunching on leaves.

Heading back upstream towards MotleyTrees along the riverbankFawn and Doe

I got back to the put in shortly before sunset.

Fall foliage lit by the setting sun, seen from the put in

It had been a great afternoon, though I was pretty stiff and sore — but in a good way. Mid October in the middle of foliage season is a great time to go kayaking.

Fall Foliage, 2022

by

This has been a frustrating October. I came down with COVID the day after my niece’s wedding and even though I had a three day weekend the following weekend, and we had gorgeous weather, I still felt crummy enough, even after a week, to not want to do much of anything. It wasn’t a serious case; it just felt like a bad cold, but it hung on for about ten days. So last weekend, I moped around the house looking out at the gorgeous weather, and hoped that it would still be nice the next weekend, and that I’d finally be over the COVID enough to be able to do something fun.

It was, I was, and I did.

Continue reading →

Sunday Morning, Charles River

by

One of the things the fall brings is shorter days. The earlier sunsets are the most noticeable, but sunrise is getting later too. In June, sunrise was around 4:30-ish, now it’s around 6:30, and will be getting later still over the next six weeks, until Daylight Savings Time ends.

This later sunrise makes it easier to haul my sorry behind out of bed to see the sunrise. I tend to wake up early anyway — 3:30 – 4:00 is not uncommon, but usually I just roll over and try to go back to sleep.

I decided this weekend to see if I could get up early enough to be on the Charles River for sunrise. It’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for a long time. Since downstream faces East, I figured I could get some decent pictures.

Continue reading →

Leaf Peeping on the Charles

by

Fall foliage is such an ephemeral thing; one moment all the leaves are green; then in August, the first “traitor trees” start turning color, then one day, most of the trees are in full color – they still have most of their leaves, but they’ve turned color. Then, a few days later, the bonds holding the leaves to the trees start to break, and the leaves start to fall, leaving the trees barer and barer, until nothing is left except the oaks, grimly holding onto their dry brown leaves.

This weekend was pretty much peak season around here, and the weather was pleasant, so I took the kayak out for a trip along the Charles in Dedham – I didn’t have time for a longer trip as I had to get home to make supper. It was gorgeous.

I put in at the landing by the Dedham Recreation Center, and paddled downstream through Motley Pond, down past the Route 109 bridge to just short of the Bridge Street bridge. Along the way I saw a bunch of young mallards; the heads of the males were a deep rich green. Judging by their size, I’d guess this was their first time in adult plumage. On the way back, I spotted a snowy egret and a bunch of painted turtles by the entrance to Motley Pond.

Trees overhanging the waterAlong the riverNear a bend in the riverYellow LeavesOrange LeavesRed leaves and riverbankUpstream from Motley PondDownstream from Motley PondDownstream from Motley PondCanada GeeseRed leavesLeaf on the waterFemale and male mallardMale mallardLooking upstream toward Motley PondOverhanging TreesSnowy EgretTurtleYellow LeafYellow leavesBerriesRed leaves along the river

Motley Pond is a bit of a misnomer; it’s more like a spot where the river spreads out a bit. Unlike the Basin, between Boston and Cambridge, the Charles is pretty narrow here, no more than 15 feet in some spots. At Motley, the river widens out; there is also a sandbar island in the middle, and you can often spot waterfowl there.

I haven’t been on the kayak much the past year. It was great to take the boat and the camera out for a few hours.

Brickyard Pond, Barrington, RI

by

Near the midpoint of the East Bay Bike Path you pass a large pond, Brickyard Pond. The pond is large, about 84 acres, and, from the bike way seems quite wild, as it’s ringed by marsh grasses and has several small islands covered with marsh grass and trees. In fact, it’s man-made – it was the site of a clay quarry used to make bricks that eventually filled with water.

Continue reading →

Painted Turtles

Image

I took the kayak for a 7.48 mile round trip from Dover to Natick and back today. I started off by Bridge Street in Dover — fortunately grabbing the last parking spot — and took the boat downriver to just short of the Natick Dam. Along the way, in several spots, I saw painted turtles basking on logs and boulders in the river. Usually, they would slip into the water as soon as I got close-ish, but these little guys stayed put just long enough for me to get their picture:

Painted Turtles on log

Painted Turtles on log

July 4th on the Charles

by

I spent Fourth of July watching the Boston fireworks on the Charles from my kayak. Without a doubt, it’s the best way to see the fireworks.

I’ve done this a couple of times now; Charles River Canoe and Kayak rents boats from their Brighton and Kendall Square locations for the event. The first time couple of times I did it, the atmosphere was very relaxed, and there was a lot less security. I remember one year seeing a couple of guys on a raft made up of office water cooler bottles, and people on floating rafts; after the marathon bombing, security was tightened up. The last time I did it, in 2013, all boats had to be anchored by 7 and there was a Coast Guard boat with a big black machine gun on the front deck patrolling the river.

This was the first year I did it in my own boat. I put in from Herter Park, just downstream from Charles River Canoe and Kayak, around five-thirty-ish, and got to the Mass Ave bridge a little past 7. There were already a bunch of boats there, some of them fairly large. Boats were required to anchor by 8:15, but I felt like a motorcyclist among a bunch of SUVs with all the boat traffic, so I waited until nearly 8 to anchor. I wanted to be able to move if a boat did something stupid.

Once I anchored, there was nothing to do but wait. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous: clear, not humid, not too warm. There was enough wind to raise a little chop, but it kept the bugs away. It was really nice just sitting there in the boat. We were treated to a spectacular sunset:

Sunset, July 4th

Sunset, July 4th

This year, the concert and fireworks were on network television. I’ve been to years both with and without the network, and I much prefer it when network TV isn’t calling the shots. This year, they played the 1812 Overture fairly early, with a small display of fireworks, and then there were 90 minutes of filler country music until the main show at 10:30, timed to end just before the 11:00 news.

But, oh, what a show it was. It made the wait worthwhile. Not only did they shoot them from the barge, but they launched sprays of fireworks from the Mass Ave bridge itself, and I was close enough to the bridge to feel the heat from the fireworks. There were jets of fireworks flying up from the length of the bridge, with sprays of light in the sky beyond. It was magnificent.

Finally, though, came the finale, and then it was time to up-anchor and head back. It was kind of cool kayaking in the dark, part of a stream of boats heading upstream. Each boat had at least a light, and several of us were adorned with a number of glow sticks. I’d been worried about pulling out of the river, but I found the exit pretty easily, and was able to get out without a problem. All in all, a wonderful night.