Quinsigamond River - Ekblaw Landing - April 3rd

I spent yesterday doing work around the house, but I had time today to do some paddling. Unfortunately, I slipped getting out of my boat last week on Otter Brook and hurt my knee. I would have loved to paddle the Quaboag with the RICKA WW crew, but I decided to give my knee a rest and go poling instead.  I did the RICKA Flatwater trip on the Quinsigamond River.  

Although the Quinsigamond has many small tributaries and drains a large area, the river itself is only 5 miles long. It flows south from Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, through Snow Marsh and Lake Ripple in Grafton, and into the Fisherville Pond in Fisherville where it merges into the Blackstone River.

I had paddled the Quinsigamond before with the Blackstone Valley Paddle Club, but we had always put in at the town-owned access behind Riverview Apartments on Route 122. From there, you can paddle upstream to the dam at Lake Ripple, or downstream to Fisherville Pond.

On this trip, we put in at the Ekblaw Landing off Route 122 and paddled upstream under the Mass Pike and into Snow Marsh – a 59-acre marsh protected by MassWildlife and Ducks Unlimited. We then paddled down into Lake Ripple. The level was low - 1.5 feet, 30 cfs on the North Grafton gage.  It wasn’t the best section for poling, and I didn’t go all the way down Lake Ripple, but it was still fun.


Up on the rails

Links:
Quinsigamond gage in North Grafton