Charles River/Boston Harbor - October 1, 2026

View of Back Bay

I made my first trip into Boston since my retirement yesterday to paddle the Charles River and Boston Harbor. I have been wanting to do this trip for years, but didn’t know the put-in or how to get through the locks. When Steve posted the trip on the RICKA Flatwater Message Board, I was in.

We put in at Magazine Beach and paddled down the Charles River into the Back Bay. This area was originally a large tidal marsh that was filled from 1857 through the 1880s, transforming it into the grid-patterned Victorian-era brownstone and high-rise neighborhood that we know today.

Into the Gridley Locks

We continued under the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge and Longfellow Bridge up to the Museum of Science, which sits directly on top of the 1910 Charles River Dam. The dam was built to turn the Charles River from a tidal estuary into a fresh-water basin. It included locks to let river traffic pass to and from the harbor. We passed through the channel of a now unused lock next to the Museum of Science.

In 1978, the Army Corps of Engineers replaced the old Charles River Dam with a new dam under what is now the Zakim Bridge. We passed through the new Colonel Richard Gridley Locks on our way to Boston Harbor. Richard Gridley was General George Washington's first army engineer.

Bunker Hill and Old Ironsides

We passed through the Gridley Locks into Boston Harbor and headed for the Charlestown Navy Yard. The Charlestown Naval Yard is one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States. It was established in 1800 and operated until 1974. Today it is part of the Boston National Historical Park, and is the home port for the USS Constitution – “Old Ironsides”.

We crossed over to the Boston side of the harbor and continued down to the Tea Party Ship at Fort Point Channel. Conditions were perfect, and it was great to paddle past building where I had worked for 45-years. The trip back was uneventful until we hit an afternoon headwind on the Charles River. Total milage for the day – 10-miles.

This is what my workdays in Boston look like now!

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