The weather was a little cool when we first arrived but it started warming up by the time we launched at about 10:15am. This would be the third or fourth time I've done this exact stretch of the Charles, so I thought I knew exactly what to expect. The trip starts off with a section of river that winds back and forth and is not very wide.
Not much room to be paddle more than 2 across with all the tight corners to negotiate with long kayaks.
I mentioned there had been a down tree nearby in the spring but I figured it must have been cleared or at least trimmed by now. I was a little nervous when we came around a corner and saw that the tree did not seem to be cleared out very much at all. Once we got closer, we realized it would be fairly easy to make it through one at a time. I didn't get a picture while upstream of the tree but I got the camera out in time below the tree to get a shot as Gif made his way through.
Everything seemed fine and we started to enjoy the foliage as the sun warmed up the air.
Little did we know what was in store for us around the next bend...another obstacle. This time it seemed a little more treacherous. If it were summertime and the water and air temps were much warmer, it would be no big deal. But with 13 miles more to go and not being assured to make it over without getting hung up, nobody wanted to chance running a 12-18 inch drop over a beaver dam in long sea kayaks. The water was rushing pretty strong and might have carried us through, but it looked pretty ominous scouting from inside the boats above the dam. It was so solid, there must have been another down tree that the beavers used as a base.
Well, I was nearest the riverbank and had told everybody that this was a flat-water trip, so I volunteered to see if there was an easy portage through the heavy bushes on river left. It seemed like I had a good spot to get out. There was a small clearing. The bank was a little high, but the water at the bank was only about 8 inches deep and I had 14 inch high boots on...no problem, right? I used my paddle to stabilize my boat on the bank and got my left leg out and into the water. When I started to stand up, the riverbank gave way and I ended up with my left leg sunk to my thigh and my right leg still in the boat which was now half tipped and taking on water. I managed to crawl out of the water and dragged my boat up into the bushes without too much more trouble but the long pants I was wearing were now wet up to the thighs.
There seemed to be an opening to get through the bushes to the downriver side of the dam so I made my way through. Growing amongst the bushes were a lot of vines. This was not going to be a good portage (some day I'm going to buy that cheap machette at Walmart for these situations). When I made it through, I was barely downstream of the dam.
The dam was very sturdy so I stepped onto a flat part of it close to the river's edge. It seemed feasible that the others could get their bows onto this flat section close enough for me to pull and push them over the dam without them getting out of their boats. There were a lot of leafy branches in the water so it didn't seem like it would scratch the boats at all. I think Pat went first in his plastic boat and the plan worked very well with no danger of tipping over. Once everybody was pulled and pushed across, they had to face back upriver and find an eddy to wait for me.
I dragged my boat through the bushes and small trees to just below the dam. I was able to find a flat enough pile of branches on the back of the dam to get in and do a seal launch into the swift current. We were off again and hoping for no more obstacles.
We traveled the calm thin sections of the river enjoying calm waters, good conversation and nice fall foliage.
As we rounded a corner paddling three across, we ran into oncoming kayak traffic. A group of 6 to 10 people headed in the opposite direction.
We slimmed back down to paddling two across and didn't come across any more traffic for a while, just more foliage...
A few of my friends from Abington liked the idea of kayaking the Charles, but do not have large enough boats for the full trip, so they planned a shorter route. They knew our itinerary and thought they might run into us. Well, we ended up running into them right where they were putting in at Old Bridge street. We had traveled about 4.5 miles at this point and were ready for a noon-time snack, so we stopped for a couple minutes while Suzanne and Dave finished loading their gear and launching.
After introductions, we proceeded under the railroad bridge.
We all paddled together for a while.
And enjoyed some more foliage...
Audrey had mentioned a big, wide, hollow tree where she usually sees many small birds during spring and summer (sorry, I forget what kind). No birds today - must be too late in the season.
This next picture made me think of a "Where's Waldo" picture puzzle book. Find the turtles...
A few more colorful trees...at this point we had left Dave and Suzanne behind as the boat speed of a 9 foot kayak is just not compatible with the boat speed of 18 foot kayaks. They were planning on other stops to search for geo-caches anyway.
This is the railroad bridge that can be seen from King Philip's Overlook. The Overlook is the rock that is visible a little right of the center of the picture.
Even though you've seen where the overlook is located, it is still over a mile of paddling around a bend in the river to get to the Rocky Narrows Canoe Landing. Of course there is some nice foliage in that mile...
Also, as we approached the canoe landing, we came across Barb heading up-river to meet us. She had put in at Farm Road in Sherborn and paddled up-river, planning to join us for the hike to the overlook.
At the canoe landing, we dragged our boats out of the water and got out our lunches. Pat and Gif were not interested in hiking up to the overlook, so they stayed with the boats at the canoe landing. Barb, Audrey, Linda and I gathered our gear and headed up the trails to eat lunch in the sun with nice views from the overlook.
The trail to the King Philip's Overlook is about six tenths of a mile and parts of it are a little steep. The Rocky Narrows Overlook is located along the trail, but there's no clearing to get much of a view - it was a little better in the spring I think. I don't believe anyone else had done this hike. I got a good shot of them as they came out into the clearing and saw how nice the view is from up here...well worth the hike.
The view back up-river.
The view across to Medfield State Forest.
We sat around and had our lunches and then Linda shared some salsa and chips.
We saw a few more groups paddling down the river.
And a couple people venturing across the railroad bridge.
I tried a couple more angles for shots of the foliage before we headed back down to the river.
We ran into Suzanne and Dave hiking up as we were hiking down. They had found a geo-cache or two and would try to find the one at the overlook - I couldn't find it and it turned out neither did they. But Dave did find 3 of the 5 he was planning to search for.
Here's a picture of what the trails are like on the hike.
When we got back to the canoe landing Pat and Gif were very ready to get back on the water. Gif was already in his boat and doing a little exploring back up-river. We loaded up our stuff and moved on to the busy section of the river. Lots of kayak traffic below Rocky Narrows.
And still plenty of foliage.
Got a group shot paddling.
A closer shot of Audrey and Barb. Barb soon left us and took out where she had put-in.
The sky seemed to darken a little. The sun stayed out where we were and the weather never seemed threatening, but the background for the foliage shots improved.
The dark sky and bright sunlight made for a very dramatic picture of the white mansion across from the Virgin Mary statue.
Linda was complaining of a headache, but felt much better once Audrey described the apple cake and cider she had waiting for us at the take-out which was now less than a mile away.
This weeping willow was not colorful but it caught my eye as it looked like it was permanently blowing in a breeze.
Linda was the first to arrive at the take-out spot above the South Natick Dam.
We loaded up our boats on the 3 vehicles and then settled down at one of the picnic tables in Grove Park for a delicious apple cake and apple cider that Audrey brought for us.
It didn't take much arm-twisting to get us all to have a second piece of cake.
Before we left the park, I took a quick look at how much water was flowing over the dam after the recent rains.
Then I took one last picture of the calm water above the dam.
We said good-bye to Audrey who had the single kayak car and could just head home. The rest of us drove back to the put-in and moved the boats to our own cars before the drive home. Little did we know the Patriots were winning in overtime and delaying their traffic jam to coincide with our drives home. I'm sure a few people got stuck in the traffic.
Here are a few stats from the trip (for future planning):
Launch Time: 10:15am
Paddling distance to Rocky Narrows Canoe Landing: 8.8miles
Stop for lunch: 1:15pm
Hiking distance 1.3 miles (35 minutes up, 40 minutes at top, 30 minutes back down)
Back in the water: 3:00pm
Paddling distance to Grove Park: 4.5 miles
Take Out Time: 4:20pm
Total Paddling Distance: 13.3 miles
Participants - full trip: Norm, Pat, Linda, Audrey, Gif,
Participants - partial trip: Suzanne, Dave, Barb
Here is the topo map of the trip with our track highlighted. The river runs north. Notice how much the river winds in the south (bottom of picture) and how straight it is just before the dam (top of picture). It looks like the area where we hiked is halfway through the trip, but it is actually two thirds through.
I'd like to explore more of the Charles River in the future, but I don't know if there could be any better section of the river than this area.
Thank you all for joining me on this trip. And thank you Audrey for providing the post paddling refreshment (PPR). It was very convenient and time-saving to have PPR immediately after paddling. That was so much easier than finding a nearby place for 5 cars and a trailer to drive to and park and wait for service. PPR at the take-out would be a great trend to try to encourage.
Norm
