Bea and I had just paddled some of this area with the AMC 4 days ago on Wednesday. One of the other paddlers had mentioned a lagoon within Thompson Island that was only accessible at high tide, so that was my original goal for the trip. Beyond that, I was open to heading in any direction. We decided we'd see what the conditions and traffic were like after exploring the lagoon and decide our route from there.
The launch point I chose was a bit difficult. It worked ok for 2 vehicles, but I wouldn't recommend it for a large group. There were "No Parking" signs everywhere, but they were terribly faded and it seemed like they are commonly ignored. So, we unloaded at the chained-off beach entrance and parked our cars up the hill, off the side of the road, on a dirt area that looked like a well used parking lot. I was surprised by the large number of MBTA buses that use this road. They go back and forth to Long Island, but this was Sunday morning and it seemed I must have had 3 go by in 30 minutes.
Nickerson Beach is the name of the launch spot. It is on the north side of Squantum, so there is a view of Boston from the beach.
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The more striking view in the morning sunlight is the Kennedy Library.
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We paddled over to the Thompson Island lagoon which was not far from the beach. At the entrance, there was a wire running across from one pole to another. It looked like a zip line sort of setup to cross the water. There was a single step at the base of each pole to help get up and down from the wire. I got a picture of the whole setup from inside the lagoon.
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Looking in towards the thin part of the island, the large climbing walls and rope courses were right in front of us.
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We went exploring up the little side creeks to see what else we could find and came across this rope bridge. Looked like fun. I'd like to come back and try this some time when my knee heals.
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Bea swung in and took a close look at the rope bridge too. This picture gives a better perspective of its size.
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When we were done with the lagoon, we discussed our plan for the day. The water was dead calm, there was no wind, there was absolutely no boat traffic and the temperature was perfect. We could go anywhere we wanted. We talked about heading over toward Boston, but we could do that any time. The decision was to take advantage of the calm conditions and take a trip around the inner islands - Long Island, Rainsford Island, Spectacle Island and the rest of Thompson Island. Our route would be to cross the shallow spit between Squantum and Thompson Island while the tide was still high, past Moon Island, under the bridge, over to Rainsford, around Long, then to Spectacle for a break. After a break, dash across the channel and complete the circle around Thompson as we headed back to Nickerson Beach.
We were much closer to Moon Island than our previous trip this week with the AMC. This time we could see that the buildings visible near the bridge were all part of the Boston Fire Department training facilities. We couldn't see the Boston Police practice firing range that we could hear earlier in the week.
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This is the tower that they set on fire for training. It looks like they use old wooden pallets as the fire fuel source.
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There wasn't a boat in sight in any direction as we crossed the main channel under the Long Island bridge and the water was super calm.
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We headed over to Rainsford Island and came across birds on the rocks and pretty seascapes.
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I like these dark rocks. So much nicer than rocks with bird crap all over them. I'm wondering if these are juvenile sea gulls.
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There were a few American Oystercatchers.
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I liked this seascape. Wish the sea gulls were turned around...
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These gulls did a better job of posing for me.
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American Oystercatchers
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There were a few sailboats anchored off Rainsford and it looked like a few people camped on the island also.
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We rounded the eastern end of Rainsford where there is an old granite sea wall that is still in good condition. This picture seems like it was taken with a wide angle lens. We paused for a moment and looked over towards Georges, Gallups and Lovell Islands. They looked so close, it seemed we could reach out and touch them. The conditions were so fantastic - it was tempting to head over to them.
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Bea liked the picture she took of me with Deer Island in the background, so I had to get even.
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We headed over to Long Island for a look at the northern side. I almost missed the lighthouse, its so overgrown all around it.
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We headed under the docks to check out the newer looking facilities.
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Wikipedia says the facilities here are a teenagers day camp named "Camp Harbor View" built in 2007. It looks like they have plenty of activities. Volleyball on the beach.
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Looks like they have a high rope course and soccer fields.
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And basketball courts.
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They must have a sailing program too.
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Right beside the basketball courts, remnants of the old fort are visible.
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The old Long Island Hospital. I think its used as a homeless shelter now as well as other things.
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We turned to head toward Spectacle Island. The water was still silky smooth and no boats in sight yet.
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When we came around to the western side of Spectacle Island, it seemed so derserted, but I guess it was just the early hour.
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We decided to paddle right into the marina area and land on the beach in front of the visitors center.
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There was only one couple enjoying the beach.
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We checked the GPS and found that we had already travelled over 9 miles and had been in our boats for over 3 hours. We took advantage of the adirondack chairs on the front porch of the visitors center and enjoyed our snacks. It was an uncommon luxury to sit on a comfortable chair during a kayak trip! I failed to get a picture, but I think Bea got one.
As we headed back to our boats, a full ferry boat arrived and the number of people on the island probably tripled.
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The wind seemed to increase a little while we had our break.
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I looked back to see where Bea was and saw that she was searching the beach.
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She hadn't misplaced her glasses this time, she was gathering up "cultural artifacts".
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They ask that you leave them for others to find them in the future, so we just took pictures of them.
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When we got back into our boats, the ferry had left and a bunch of boats had just passed through the main channel between Spectacle and Thompson. As we got out past the pier, we saw a couple other sea kayakers. We considered going over and saying hello, but there was a large break in the now busy channel traffic, so we decided we needed to take this opportunity to sprint across. I can't keep up with Bea when I'm in my orange boat, so she got across first.
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We got across just in time.
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The view across the bay to Castle Island was a little more hazy now.
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As we came around to the pier for Thompson Island, a boat came out.
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I noticed on shore that they seem to have a big boat house and some large life-saving rowboats. Must be part of the Outward Bound program.
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Across the bay we could see U-Mass Boston. (Already showed a good shot of the Kennedy Library)
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The decorated natural gas tank.
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Marina Bay
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As we reached the opening to the lagoon we had visited first thing in the morning, there was just a small stream of water coming out and it all seemed to be so high above us now, five hours later.
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The spit of land we had crossed between Squantum and Thomsons was now dry land also.
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I wondered what this old tower was off Nickerson Beach. My guess is that it had something to do with the former Squantum Naval Air Station.
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The tide was now out, but Nickerson Beach still had fairly firm footing when we landed. There was one couple there enjoying the sun.
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Here is a topo map of the area with our course highlighted.
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A few statistics from the trip:
We launched at 7:00am
We stopped on Spectacle Island for a snack at 10:10am after traveling 9.63 miles
We got back in the boats at 11:10am (didn't seem like we stayed that long)
We landed back at Nickerson Beach at 12:10pm and had traveled a total of 12.38 miles
Thanks for joining me Bea. It was a great time as usual. I could get used to early morning weekend paddles. Next Boston Harbor trip we'll have to do some of the outer islands.
