West River with the BVPC - May 23, 2023

The open boaters 

I saw on Facebook that Danny and Bill would be joining the Tuesday night trip with the Blackstone Valley Paddle Club on the West River in Uxbridge, so I decided to join as well. Open boaters make every trip better.

The West River in MA (not to be confused with the West River in VT) arises at Silver Lake and Cider Mill Pond in Grafton and flows south for approximately 13-miles to its convergence with the Blackstone River in Uxbridge. The river was a source of power for several textile mills during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.

Heading out

As part of the flood control work completed after Hurricanes Connie and Diane in 1955, a large flood control dam was built on the West River by the Army Corps of Engineers. The flood control land now includes 600 acres of woodland and marshland along the river and upstream in the towns of Uxbridge, Northbridge and Upton.

On this trip we would be paddling from West River Road in Uxbridge up to the flood control dam. By late spring or early summer, the backwater from the dam just above Mendon Street (Route 16) is full of invasive weeds, so this trip needs to be done early in the season. We paddled upstream over two beaver dams. The river that twists and turns through pretty woodlands and marshland as we made our way up the West Hill Dam and back.

The crew at the put-in

Links:

My Pictures